Livin It Up
Having long ago earned his rock wars stripes as working class foil and foiled Van Halen superstar, Sammy Hagar finally understands who's laughing best. A half-dozen albums into a post-VH second solo career where Hagar has sometimes seemed more like Dorian Grey than Red Rocker Redux, the veteran rocker kicks off his shoes again--along with some longstanding presumptions. Hagar succeeds here by nimbly channeling the Ghost of Jimmy Buffet Whenever--even if the veteran rocker's Gulf of California acoustic blues is about as authentic as Robert Johnson's Delta surfing legend. The opening "Sam I Am" sets the tone, a slice of slide-guitar autobio-blues that borrows from the folks who stole it from the people who nicked it from the southern blues masters; Sammy's "Ice Cream Man," if you can forgive him (and after his greasy cover of Dylan's "Rainy Day Women" you might not). Hagar does a subtler job suggesting the spirit of Brian Wilson via the harmonies of the loping "Living On a Coastline," channels a littlefauxTennessee twang into "Halfway to Memphis" before a thoroughly Hagar-ized cover of the Pointers "I'll Take You There" and the surprisingly tender lullaby "Some Day" close the album out on a high note. With tracks like "I Love This Bar" and "One Sip," it's a party-hearty record whose crafty appeal seems to vary in direct proportion to one's number of empty cerveza bottles. This is music with a purpose: to make sunburned drunks dance badly. Sober pale people take heed.-- Jerry McCulley