Canadian singer-songwriter Brock Zeman debuted with the hardly innovative but certainly sincere and diligent Cold Winter Comes Back (2003), containing
the desolate Dust, the country-ish Ridin' on the Rims
and especially the eight-minute epic Billy n' Me.
Half of
Songs From The Mud (2005) is a more pensive work but the other half
contains the ebullient 50 Dollar Bill, the trotting Dear Father, the apocalyptic Stan Ridgway-esque The Sun Went Down and even the old-fashioned bluegrass breakdown of Caroline.
He formed the Dirty Hands (with Steve Smith on dobro and pedal steel guitar) for
And The Dirty Hands (2005) and
Welcome Home Ivy Jane (2006),
albums that hark back to the classic era of country-rock, to bands like
the Eagles.
Sweet Charlotte is the standout from the former, followed by the
Don McLean-esque Talking Reality Show Blues, the
rockabilly-tinged Blood of Christ Blues and the bluegrass-tinged
White Freight Liner.
The Bourbon Sessions (2007), a collaboration with guitarist Dan Walsh,
yielded Places to Fall and the The Cuckoo Song
$100 Difference (2008), a generally noisier album, doesn't have the
explosive energy of
Neil Young and the Crazy Horse, and Zeman's
songs actually lose some of their pathos when coupled with a rowdy band.
Moccasin Road is almost cowpunk.
The centerpiece of Ya Ain't Crazy Henny Penny (2010) is the eight-minute Ya Ain't Crazy Henny Penny, first agonizing and then stately like a requiem and finally romantically neurotic.
Me Then You (2011), his most radio-friendly album yet, runs the gamut
from loud blues-rock (Push Them Stones) to
catchy country-pop (Until It Bleeds), and from
propulsive power-pop (Someone For You)
to crawling blues (Claws),
with a nod to
Bob Dylan in Triple Crown and
plenty of melodramatica bombast in Rain On the Roof #2.
Rotten Tooth (2013) is his blues-rock album, his best impersonation of
George Thorogood in songs like
Rotten Tooth, while the standout is the disjointed and apocalyptic
Sending Strange Weather.
Brock modernized his sound on Pulling Your Sword Out Of The Devils Back (2015), the first major stylistic change of his career. Besides more eccentric arrangements, there's a deliberate more aggressive stance in songs that
still belong to his conservatsive
country-pop canon (notably the catchy Dead Mans Shoes) and there is
a generally sinister tone in some of the ruder songs, like the
boogie Sweat and the blues-rocker Drop Your Bucket.
And Some Things Stay even winks at disco-music.
The Pinball Sessions (2016) overflows with that ferocious energy, from
the sermon Walking in the Dark to the
John Mellencamp-esque Push Them Stones.
The album includes the lengthy psychodrama Killer In The Corn and a
seven-minute version of Rain On The Roof # 1 #2.
He also revisits old classics like 50 Dollar Bill (here an explosive garage-rock raveup) and Sweat (here almost a
Tom Waits dirge).
The Carnival Is Back In Town (2017)
Busted Flat
The Carnival Is Back In Town (2017), a rock opera of sorts,
appropriates styles of the 1930s and 1940s, backed by a band that includes
saxophone, piano, accordion, fiddle, besides guitarist Blair Hogan, something
that Randy Newman could have done.
The sax leads the swinging dance of Hammer Them Stakes Down,
the accordion leads the slow dance of Come One Come All
the stately Warren Zevon-esque Stitch
There are songs that sound like skits of an expressionist cabaret or British musichal of the Depression Era, like The Juggler, Freak Show and especially the polka The Moon Ain't Full.
There's a peak of pathos in the longer piece, Drinks the Clown, which is also one of the most dejected.
The opera ends with the mournful sax-tinged
Bruce Springsteen-esque
The Carnival Has Left Town (2017).
Some of that creative bonanza
transfers to Hey Tom (2019), notably in
the pounding rocker Hey Tom and
in the nocturnal and jazzy I've Conditioned Myself To Be Cool.
Most of the album contains
more traditional fare like the singalongs Bake My Beans and
Long Hard Drinking.
Zeman is also at the peak of his melodic skills, as proven by the
anthemic refrains of Canada and Ain't No Man, on the way to
the gentle power-pop of closer Love Be Gentle.
Mostly Peaceful (2022) is a mediocre follow-up to two of his most
important albums. There is hardly a song worthy of being added to his canon.
