Rick Jay Plays Poker
This royal flush of a card sharp's compilation provides an inspired soundtrack for magician Ricky Jay's poker obsession. The game (blood sport?) offers common thematic ground for blues king Robert Johnson, country queen Patsy Cline, folk great Bob Dylan, soul legend O.V. Wright, and the high bluegrass harmonies of the Country Gentlemen. The selection additionally extends from call-and-response musicals (Howard Da Silva's "Politics and Poker") to TV (Lorne "Bonanza" Greene's "Five Card Stud") to Irish balladry ("Dolan's Poker Party"). The same song--"Ace in the Hole" (not the George Strait country favorite)--receives dramatically different readings from the sultry Anita O'Day and the gravel-voiced Dave Van Ronk. Listening to Townes Van Zandt's allegorical "Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold," you can't help thinking that poker is the perfect metaphor for life (or perhaps that life is the perfect metaphor for poker).--Don McLeese