But I bet your average lay person on the street couldn't tell you much about David Hildago, Peter Case, Charlie Sexton, Bruce Thomas, and Booker T. Jones. Not to mention David Raven. Many of these players made appearances on Tonio K's last pair of albums, but here they play music closer to their collective common ground. None of them have played for Janet. Although Ole is less thematically unified than Romeo Unchained, it doesn't have the uneven quality of Notes from a Lost Civilization .
Every song here is both a story worth hearing and a melody worth singing along to.
And it won't take you long to be singing along either. Tonio K's true gift is witty songwriting. He is a master at turning a phrase that is both clever and insightful. One of the trademarks of his style is the use of repetitive phrases to build, clarify, and add humor to his story. I don't know what you want Don't know what you believe I don't know how to act anymore or how long I can keep juggling.