(3 of 3)
Brady is looking at his breakthrough year. He wrote two songs on Raitt's brand new Luck of the Draw, including the title track; and she returns the favor by singing lead and background on the title track from Brady's own Trick or Treat (Fontana/Mercury), which may well be the prize work in this very fine bunch. Brady's solo career as a songwriter began more than a decade ago; before that he had been known as a reinterpreter of traditional Irish music. After his fourth solo record, in 1988, followed the usual pattern -- critical accolades, cult status, stubbornly low profile -- "I decided to take a year off" to work out the key question: "whether I actually wanted to go on making records and trying to have major success in the mainstream. A lot of the songs on Trick or Treat reflect what I was going through. They're songs about looking for something, looking for a sense of what you should be doing, about facing up to the fact that you may never find out."
More than the music itself, which ranges from Himmelman's slightly mystical lyricism to Brady's graceful rock to the saw-toothed blues riffs that Whitley lays down, this may be what unites the work of this burgeoning group, even as the mainstream comes within hailing distance. There is nothing refined or settled in any of this music. Look elsewhere for something that placates. Every one of these songs is a wound that goes unhealed, a question that stays open.