GUEST REVIEW..........................................................7 FEBRUARY 2005
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Artist:
KELLY PARDEKOOPER |
Haymaker Heart is the fourth full-length CD from Kelly Pardekooper, a native of Iowa City who now makes his home in Nashville, TN. The CD moves across a full spectrum of alt. country rhythms ("Draw the Line," "Take Me 2 My Home"), weaves in and out of throaty, somber ballads ("Drinking Alone Again," "West Side"), and occasionally lands you in the midst of an infectious, foot-stomping rock-'n'-roll song ("Wild Love," "Run Again").
Regardless of genre, Pardekooper’s voice never seems strained or out of place. Still tethered to his Iowa roots, and in the style of Greg Brown, Pardekooper includes sympathetic but unadorned portraits of country landscapes on several of Haymaker’s tracks. He also has a keen and clever wit which shines through in "21st Century Trailer Park," a critique of ersatz buildings and corrupt developers. The semi-raucous "Folk This" cuts a wide swath through Bob Dylan, John Cougar Mellencamp, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt ("There’s really no depression down in New Madrid / So let that wind take your troubles away")—and is that plaintively crooned "Sweet Caroline, Rain Squall" near the end of the song an oblique reference to Ryan Adams and Richard Buckner respectively?
In general, the lyrics on Haymaker range from convenient rhymes to catchy turns of phrase to downright poignant and sharply insightful lines. I favor the muse that helped Pardekooper pen, "My heart's already gone, and my body can’t have long / Go on shoot me so the rest of me can die" ("Just Shoot Me"), and I slightly wince when he delivers the ill-advised couplet, "Tell me you’re the one that’ll always drive me crazy / Tell me you’re the one that still wants to have my baby" ("Tell Me (You're the One)"), but even a lead balloon like the latter can be overlooked because it launches an otherwise well-wrought ballad you just can’t resist singing along with.
In concert, Pardekooper is thoroughly engaging, if somewhat soft-spoken, and affable to a fault. He delights in taking requests and playing covers (the recent Iowa City performance included "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Give Me Back the Key to My Heart"), and his music inspires people to take bold strides and occasionally awkward spins on the hardwood. Some of Pardekooper's live persona is evident if you wait patiently for the final track on Haymaker to erupt into a live version of "Young American," a song from his second full-length CD, Johnson County Snow.
At twenty songs, Pardekooper’s latest CD clocks in at just over 68 minutes, which turns out to be just the right amount of time. Haymaker Heart is an early candidate for one of the top-10 alt. country CDs of the year and a valiant effort that should garner some much deserved recognition for Pardekooper.
kw