DAVE ONEY > One Tough Town

“Nobody else in the whole world knows when Mac’s gonna open the Radio Café, but we do-and we tell each other,” Todd Snider says in “From a Rooftop,” his spoken-word tribute to East Nashville. Label: RED PARLOR
[Rating: 3.5]

“Nobody else in the whole world knows when Mac’s gonna open the Radio Café, but we do-and we tell each other,” Todd Snider says in “From a Rooftop,” his spoken-word tribute to East Nashville. “We stand around down there and smoke during Dave Olney’s break.” The song implies what those new to town need to know; Olney’s the kind of artist that other songwriters gather around to offer their attention and study closely.

The Rhode Island native’s long been heralded as a sharp, literate songwriter, and One Tough Town shows again why peers revere him and many-from Linda Ronstadt to Del McCoury-have recorded his songs. Few are capable of spinning such colorful and multi-layered yarns with so little excess fat. On this fine new release, Olney spans the gamut from obstreperous glee (“Panama City,” “Sweet Potato”) to naked terror (“See How the Mighty Have Fallen,” Townes Van Zandt’s “Snake Song”).

He hits the mark consistently throughout the album, but perhaps most gloriously on that borrowed track. Covering a Van Zandt tune, of course, is much like playing a Beatles classic. The best are so lyrically rich and musically immaculate that even the most hapless hack can’t make them sound bad. That said, many are nearly impossible to improve upon.

That’s what makes Olney’s profoundly gnarled reading of Van Zandt’s “Snake Song” so remarkable. It doesn’t merely reenergize the song; it razes emotional scars that were only sideways glances in the original. Cue it up loud, but make sure there’s a hand nearby to hold onto. When Olney sings “There ain’t no mercy in my smiling/only fangs and sweet beguiling,” stereo speakers dampen with blood.