Mike Scott

Still Burning (Steady)
by Ryk McIntyre

With apologies to recent Van Morrison releases, this is the new Celtic Soul. With his second solo album, Still Burning, Mike Scott is at the top of his songwriting craft with a crack studio band, combining the intimacy of his first solo album with a touch of “The Big Music” that made the last two Waterboys albums the best Pagan rock you could crank-up on the stereo. From the opening guitar and horns on “Questions,” the themes of spiritual search and growth have some added muscle, courtesy of Pino Palladino on fretless bass and Jim Keltner on drums. Musically, the songs orbit around a central sound, whether it’s the snaky, insidious guitar of “My Dark Side” or the majestic strings that sweep aloft “Love Anyway,” a very sweet song of lovingly letting go. It’s possible these songs reflect a little of Mike’s love life, with such cautionary tales as “Rare, Precious, And Gone,” and “One Of Many Rescuers” reading like self-addressed advice. Regardless, they are emotionally multi-hued, and show a writer concerned with doing what’s right, even if it’s examining his own motives as in the simple and elegant “Open.” No navel-gazing there. Continuing his Jimi Hendrix House O’Worship theme, “King Electric” picks up the theme from Dream Harder’s “A Dream of Jimi Hendrix” and brews a rave-up celebration. No, Mike can’t play like Jimi, unlike some embarrassing moments from Woodstock III: The Burning – people who can’t play like Jimi shouldn’t try. Mike doesn’t, he just plays as best he can and leaves the note-for-note adoration to those more inclined toward Xeroxing. Didn’t Robin Trower teach us anything?
(www.mintyfresh.com)