review of the boystown tapes

As Appeared In 12/16/99 - 01/15/2000 issue of Big Shout Magazine

Somewhere below all of the radio noise, the MTV fad bands and classic staples, there is an entire culture of genuinely alternative music that most people are not aware of. The recent proliferation of very small independent labels, fueled by DIY production and Internet distribution, has created an entire subculture of music that would not have survived the chart-or-be-chucked philosophy of the modern industry. Bands both known and unknown now have a little more freedom to create the kind of music that actually interests them without fear of making some A&R guy twitchy. This brings us to Tony Carey. Carey first cut his teeth playing keyboards with Rainbow (yes, that same Blackmore-Dio-Rainbow that was all so popular 25 years ago), then found himself charting and getting MTV airplay with "I Won't Be Home Tonight" and "It's A Fine, Fine Day." Soon, however, he found the strong label and radio interest of the 80s moving away from the earthy power pop that he was performing at the time. His side project Planet P produced masterpieces including the criminally overlooked Pink World, but by then the world had gone metal. Carey moved to Germany, dug in and cultured a European following, and has released 7 CDs and several compilations and soundtracks in the last 15 years. They have all been excellent. Recently one of those little labels, Happy Street, has created a win-win situation for everyone by releasing The Boystown Tapes, a collection of recordings Carey has been working on for the last eight years.

Musically Boystown really brings me back to what was, for me, Carey's most personal work- Blue Highway. He opens with a very unexpected cover of Neil Diamond's Solitary Man. His distinctive intonations instantly make the song his own, and the track works very well. One wonders if the guy could sing the Teletubbies theme song and make it sound engrossing. Solitary Man is followed (again unexpectedly) by the powerful A Long Way From Home (Part 2), a nod to the increasing visibility of hate groups and crimes that have gained global exposure of late. "In London, Berlin, Skinheads movin in, they got the songs, the boots and beer, homegrown bigots, everyone a patriot, just like we got'em over here." A Long Way from home is a classic Carey track, replete with his driving (or perhaps more accurately "marching") rhythm punctuated with soaring guitar and Carey's signature vocals.

Another heavy one, Everything You've Got, follows. This one focuses on the protagonist's grief at losing touch with a close friend who became addicted to heroin. The track has the texture of a (recent) Robbie Robertson song- gritty spoken word that flows in and out of traditional rock, and it serves well to illustrate the grave and painful situation. These first three tracks really define themselves from each other, and set the stage for the remaining eleven songs: personal and introspective, consistent in the style and delivery but variable in construct.

Boystown is Carey's first release since 1994's cathartic Cold War Kids, which was sadly never released in the States. It is filled with the kind of lyrical wordplay that makes his songs so innovative and thought-provoking. Like Cohen, Springsteen and Dylan before him, Carey is capable of capturing complex emotions, engaging situations- entire lives- in a few economical lines. This is most evident on tracks like The Company I Keep, a no-apologies homage to the lower middle class American life and the relationships that it spawns. "Well I never was most-likely-to-succeed, the air at the top was hard to breathe, I couldn't wait to get out of New York, and go where the wine don't come with a cork, I had to change the company I keep." Carey's songs have always been filled with characters on the fringes of society, gripping social issues, and emotive odes to friends and family. This has thankfully not changed with time. Again we witness his clever lyricism in an indictment of modern media, "Mrs. Lincoln" which he postulates a newscaster having the opportunity to ask "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

In any collection of material that spans such as long period of time, the difficulty is coming up with a cohesive collection. In that sense Boystown does feel like a compilation, and there is a lack of flow compared to his earlier work. But in the end what one takes home from The Boystown Tapes is just how fine a songwriter Carey is, and what stories he can craft. Ultimately this CD is a rewarding journey through 8 years of Carey's songs, spanning the years when, arguably, he was creating his strongest material. But until radio and the music industry in general get the idea, or the Internet brings us the distribution that artists like Carey deserve, the onus is on us to seek out work like this and spread the word. So dig under the surface a littlle- go to www.tonycarey.com and see what is out there, and then go to CDNow and order a copy of The Boystown Tapes. You never know where it will take you.