Banana Slug String Band

We All Live DownStream

Slug Music (BMI)

Loving the planet, the aesthetics of its environments and even its explicit ecology through music is the goal of this quartet of local former educators. With quirky personalities, costumes and characters, the Banana Slug String Band (BSSB) writes and performs music for kids first, and adults brave enough to recognize they could stand to pick up a few facts about the Earth in upbeat song form, second. In the last 20 years, BSSB has fearlessly tackled such topics as the fresh air cycle, wildlife appreciation and ocean habitats, honoring each with an album’s worth of smart, fun and accessible originals, worthy of spicing up any elementary school curriculum, and its latest project We All Live Downstream is no exception. Ten good-natured tunes, delivered via the four men’s kind-hearted, educative crooning, instill an understanding of and profound respect for watersheds. A rousing gospel-ode, “Thankful for the Watershed” elicits gratitude while expertly describing how a watershed forms, what it is and the life it supports, while the fiddle-fueled “Storm Drain Blues,” a lyrical triumph of cause and effect, summons the villain mid-song that is “non point source pollution” and slays it by song’s end with a verse of helpful avoidance-strategies: “use soap that’s phosphate free, dispose of oil properly.” But nothing reinforces the album’s timeliness quite so well as “Let Our Wetlands Stand,” a tender-voiced, campfire-dwelling Americana wellspring of wetland pride that may very well have been titled “This Wetland is Your Wetland.” | Amanda Martinez

David Yazbek

Evil Monkey Man

Ghostlight

Yazbek has made a name for himself on Broadway, having written the witty and catchy music for Silver Screen-to-White Way adaptations “The Full Monty” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” but to me he’ll always be the genius who provided songs for the PBS kids’ show “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.” This album is his first solo effort in seven years, since three quirky XTC-influenced releases that showcased his unconventional hooks, tongue-twisting lyrics, and oddly bovine voice. The new album goes in a rougher direction for most of its length, venturing into country twang and experimental interludes. Songs like “Bazooka Joe,” “It Isn’t Fair” and “Never Get Out of This” express a bleak vision of man’s despairing underbelly (but the piano work is so jaunty!) while “Monkey Baby Hanging On Chicken Wire” provides the sort of nonsense almost making sense that drives literalists nutty, though I think it’s about animal testing, kind of. Basically, the album is Billy Joel in the final stages of madness. | Chris J. Magyar

Bill Kirchen

Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods

Proper Records Us

Known inaugurally for his fancy fretwork in ’70s-era rockabilly band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Bill Kirchen has been a fantastic stand-alone artist for at least the past three decades; his playing style has even been assigned its own category—“dieselbilly.” Kirchen’s latest disc, which dropped last January, stakes claim to the seasoned guitarist’s blend of country rock, blues, rockabilly and Texas swing. Originals like the fiery ’50s country-rock ‘n’ roll anthem “Working Man,” which mulls the odds of blue-collar laborers getting to the promised land, and the no-looking-back, twangy-guitared, anti-love romp “Get a Little Goner” share the track listing with covers like Blackie Farrell’s barroom country-blues ballad “Skid Row in My Mind,” a shining vehicle for Kirchen’s weathered and weary vocals, and a sultry, sauntering take on Shorty Long’s “Devil with the Blue Dress,” (think slow-dance with a bite), complete with cool cat hand claps and roguish electric riffs. | AM

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