TOMMY MALONE

NATURAL BORN DAYS

2013-10-12

Best known for his long term stint as one of the primary songwriters and vocalists for the beloved New Orleans band, the Subdudes, as well as stints in the Continental Drifters and Tiny Town, Tommy Malone checks in here with a solo disc featuring 12 cuts that cover much of the stylistic ground that one would expect from his rich pedigree. On the mid-tempo rocker, Home, Malone revels in returning to his roots in New Orleans while on the funky Wake Up Time he can't contain his enthusiasm for the promise of a new day. Mississippi Bootlegger is a Paul Thorn style history lesson about things going wrong over a thick ZZ Top worthy groove. Hope Diner is an acoustic gem that could have found its way onto any number of Subdudes discs. Natural Born Days finds him melding voices with Susan Cowsill over a slow moving but funky musical backdrop which stands in contrast to the anguished heartbreak ballad, Didn't Wanna Hear It. Other highlights include Important to Me, which treads heavily in country music territory and the rocker Life Goes On which finds Malone dusting himself off and moving on after a tough stretch in his life.  This disc affirms that if the Subdudes make their present hiatus permanent, Malone will still have a solid place in the music world. Smitty