New release roundup + Billy Bragg + The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra + Afghan Whigs + Geoff Muldaur A L S O_.T O D A Y Blue Glow Encore: ABC brings back summer improv hit "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Y E S T E R D A Y Back in white By David Bowman An appreciation of "The White Album" at 30 (12/08/98) R E C E N T_. M U S I C Sharps & Flats Reviews of new CDs by Pearl Jam, Sandra Bernhard and the Silos (12/02/98) Sharps & Flats Reviews of new CDs by Jewel, Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu, John Lennon and others (11/18/98) Sharps & Flats Reviews of new CDs by Beck, Seal and Alanis Morissette (11/11/98) Bringing it all back home By Robert Levine New releases by Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen prove they've been sitting on some of their best material (11/11/98) Sharps & Flats Reviews of new albums by R.E.M., Bruce Hornsby, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Silver Jews (11/04/98) BROWSE THE MUSIC ARCHIVES COLUMNS FEATURES REVIEWS INTERVIEWS S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.

SHARPS & FLATS | PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Afghan Whigs 1965 | COLUMBIA BY JOE GROSS | Rock bands (or, more accurately, rock fans) are eternally curious as to what certain drugs sound like. The Velvet Underground probably nailed down the sound of speed on "White Light/White Heat." Ten years of techno and countless raves have searched for the perfect ecstasy beat, and Spacemen 3 records might as well be distilled from poppies. So it was only a matter of time before Prozac started cruising through pop music's veins. "1965" is the sound of lead singer Greg Dulli's formerly chaotic soul stabilized, and glad about it. All the more interesting because the Afghan Whigs made their bones on an album trilogy ("Congregation," the extraordinary "Gentlemen" and "Black Love") that delved further into the emotional crimes committed by women and men in the name of sex, love and power than most folks ever want to go. Think Robert Altman's most relentless portraits cast in complex songwriting and Dulli's remarkable voice. But "1965" mutes the chaos in favor of musically simpler soul songs and horn charts, sex-rock for now people. Recorded in the pleasuredome of New Orleans, this is a straight-up party record, every single song favoring the hips over the head. Call it one long apology to the women he's dissed over the years. "Take me, taste me, erase me, anything for a lover" he moans on "John the Baptist." The man has never sounded so open, his great and terrible bastard persona nowhere to be found. Even if slick, zippy rockers like "66" and "Uptown" don't deliver the nuanced carnage of Dulli's past, you're hard-pressed to care. You're just happy the guy's feeling better. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Geoff Muldaur THE SECRET HANDSHAKE | HIGHTONE BY JOHN MILWARD | "Got to Find Blind Lemon -- Part One," a highlight of Geoff Muldaur's first album in a dozen years, underscores the curious history of country blues. Blind Lemon Jefferson was the bestselling black blues singer of the late '20s, recording such standards as "Matchbox Blues" and "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean." Jefferson died at the age of 36, which as the calendar flies, is less time than Muldaur himself has been playing country blues. This is not to compare apples and oranges, but to acknowledge the years and experience it takes to play the sweetly understated fingerstyle guitar that helps to make Muldaur's performance so winning. Muldaur started his career in the 1960s with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and later recorded as both a solo act and in a duo with his then-wife, Maria. "The Secret Handshake" to which his collection's title alludes is the common ground Muldaur finds in the eight covers and two originals that make up an album subtitled, "American Music: Blues & Gospel." The material ranges from intimate blues (Vera Ward's "The Wild Ox Moan," in which Muldaur's falsetto floats alongside his softly pulsing guitar) to a Cajun take on Leadbelly's "Alberta," featuring a horn section and a rollicking accordion. "The World Is Not My Home" is a holy blues that could give an agnostic a chill, while "Chevrolet/Black Alice" is a jazzy medley that swings to the same "hambone" rhythm that got Bo Diddley into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Muldaur's whispery wail of a voice and his sublime musicianship are the thumbprints that bind together this varied repertoire. One could say that with its vintage songs and low-key production, "The Secret Handshake" is an exercise in folklore as much as an expression of contemporary music. But as the blues approaches the centennial of its birth -- a date as fuzzy as that of the beginning of rock 'n' roll -- it's also a timely and soulful portrait of American music. SALON | Dec. 9, 1998