Good Life
By now the story is almost a cliché: hardworking Midwestern rocker can't break into the mainstream despite a truckload of critical raves, impassioned live shows, and ties to kindred soul and superstar Bruce Springsteen, who works similar hardscrabble territory. But Grushecky, now a full-time teacher in his home town of Pittsburgh, still considers himself fortunate. "Daddy always told me, money don't mean everything / Consider yourself a lucky man, you got a guitar and you still can sing," he elaborates on the title track. It's one of 13 boldly honest slices of life on this terrific hour-long disc.Disregard the rather deceptive cover photo of the relaxed singer, gazing out on a tranquil lake with an acoustic guitar by his side. One listen to the blistering opening "Code of Silence"--a co-write with Springsteen, who trades verses with Grushecky and tears into a typically slashing guitar lead--and you'll realize this is no introspective, acoustic folkie strummer. That shouldn't imply he's not reflective, though. Rugged ballads such as "Father and Son" and "The Other Shoe" view life from an honest middle-age perspective that is unflinching and never sappy. Springsteen adds his guitar or vocals to three other tracks, but this is all Grushecky's show, as his flinty voice and rocking songs mix poetry with passion in a volatile explosion of emotional intensity that can't be summoned up by less journeyman artists. He's abandoned the brass-ring grind of the music business and is content to release mature, edgy, quality work--that is what makesA Good Lifesuch an unqualified success.--Hal Horowitz