The Rip Tide is brief (less than 35 minutes) and does offer Condon's usual mix
of Baltic cabaret, French chanson, and Mexican mariachi. But such complex mood swings are present in understated poppy fashion, quietly implied on the dramatic uptempo swash
of "Santa Fe" and the psychedelic twitch of "Payne's Bay." Sparer-than- usual settings leave more room for Condon's impressionistically arcane ruminations (as in "East Harlem") and his singular vocals. Against the distressed, elegant brass of "The Peacock," Condon's voice, now huskier, sounds like a grizzled elder's with immaculate range. As a balladeer, he has the command of Tony Bennett, but with the supple roundness of a French horn. Condon always wanted to sound older than old. On The Rip Tide, he gets his wish.
- A.D. Amorosi
The Secret
(Six Degrees ***)
Guitarist/singer Vieux Farka carries the Touré name, widespread in his native Mali. (The African nation's president is also a Touré - unrelated - as is fellow guitar virtuoso Drahmane Touré, the young stunner from Timbuktu in Khaira Arby's band.) But Vieux Farka, of Niafunke, is from perhaps the world's most famous Touré family. His father was Ali Farka Touré, the influential guitar master, regarded as "the African John Lee Hooker," now revered as a godfather of North Africa's so-called desert blues.
On his third album, Vieux Farka Touré keeps pushing beyond his father's legacy, sometimes putting an acid-rock edge to his sinuous guitar lines. (Note: Mali's Samba Touré - no relation - offers a more orthodox take on Ali Farka's style via his new Crocodile Blues disc.) Guest players such as jazzy guitarist John Scofield meld well on the Arabic/flamenco-toned "Gido." The eerie slide guitar of Allman Brothers Band offspring Derek Trucks makes "Aigna"
sound both appealingly adventurous and highly trad. Yet, as wide-ranging a collaborator as Touré can be - he enlists Dave Matthews for a vocal on a track
