Praise

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Duluth CD review blowout: Greg Tiburzi, Billy Southern and Jeff Ide
Matthew R. Perrine , Budgeteer News
Published Friday, April 24, 2009
At home with Greg Tiburzi
It’s only been about two years since drummer-come-troubadour Greg Tiburzi won over the Northland with “In a Blue Haze” and he’s already back at it with “Black-Eyed Susan.”

Greg Tiburzi’s “Black-Eyed Susan” (Self-Released, 2009) 

 “El Chivato” 
 “Within the Heart of Me” 
And I thought the local singer/songwriter’s first album was good….
Album No. 2 doesn’t just continue the winning trend set by its predecessor, it manages to push Tiburzi into should-be-on-tour-with-[your favorite musical luminary] territory.

Why? It’s a complete package.

This 20-song compendium introduces itself as a necessary addition to your collection from the get-go: A mysterious and stunning painting by Dawn Tiburzi greets you on the front cover, and then the first song you’re treated to, “Footprints She Made,” is as haunting and heartrending as Eric Clapton’s “Promises.” (A taste: “And it’s the saddest thing when you look to the hills / See two ghosts and remember when / You walked there together and you sang in the moonlight.”)

The fascination with slight C&W cues continues with the next track, “Floating,” a rolling beauty that’s just as poetic: “Walked down the road, it looked ’bout the same / My neighbors strugglin’ just a-keepin’ their names / And the dust it was a-blowin’ and the ruts they were deep / Seemed the country it was dying and I could not hear a peep.”

Similarly winning are the accordion-aided “Pearls,” the Son Volt-worthy title track and, with Tiburzi seemingly channeling Tom Petty’s legendary voice, “Eggshell Heart.”

My personal favorite is “Sugar Farm in the Snow,” which evokes the easy, breezy, let’s-head-off-into-the-countryside-and-spend-a-hot-summer-day-playing-on-a-stranger’s-haybales vibe of the Grateful Dead classic “American Beauty.”

Best of all, “Black-Eyed Susan” is truly a pet project: Its songs were written, recorded and mixed by Tiburzi.

Let me just repeat something I said back when “Blue Haze” was released (and have ever since): This guy is good … real good.

Greg Tiburzi’s “Black-Eyed Susan” is out now. Pick it up when you see him at 8 p.m. Monday at Carmody Irish Pub as part of the 11th annual Homegrown Music Festival. Festival wristband required. Must be 21. Details at www.myspace.com/gregtiburzi.

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Billy Southern: Just as good as Mr. Tiburzi

In case you don’t feel like sitting through another glowing review where I come across as a hopeless cheerleader, simply replace everything I said in my review of Tiburzi’s album and replace the song titles with ones from Billy Southern’s new album, “El Chivato.”*

Seriously, this is no joke: Southern’s debut, “Swamp Dog,” came out within a month or two of Tiburzi’s in 2007. It, too, was an out-of-left-field winner that made you feel good to be a Northlander and/or alive and, of course, both albums were equally adored by yours truly.

And now the parallels are almost laughable, as the percussion work on “El Chivato” was provided by … Greg Tiburzi.

Other than that addition, though, “El Chivato” is similar to its predecessor in many regards: It rolls on like Charlie Parr’s masterworks (“Three Lakes Road” in particular), it ingeniously melds sounds and words (“Baby What’d You Think?”) and, while the backing instrumentation is top-notch — like every other record that falls under the umbrella of “the Duluth sound” — it’s songs would be just as winning in a power outage.

In other words, if “Swamp Dog” was “the quintessential Duluth release,” this one’s even quintessentialer.

*That’s foreign-speak for “The Kid” … get it?

“El Chivato” is out now. Like Tiburzi, Southern will also play at Carmody Irish Pub during Homegrown — though on a different day (Friday, May 1) and at a different time (10:15 p.m.). Past your bedtime? Check out www.myspace.com/billysouthernmusic for future dates.