Gary Lucas: Improve The Shining Hour

Guitar whiz Gary Lucas is better known for his collaborators than his solo work, which is understandable considering his high-profile stints with Nick Cave, Captain Beefheart, and Jeff Buckley. But his career is far too varied for him to be fairly pigeonholed as a mere sideman. The ambitious new compilation Improve The Shining Hour tries to encapsulate Lucas' weird, impressive career on a single disc, and for the most part it actually succeeds. Trying to filter 20 years of everything from jazz to blues to rock to pop to film music must have been daunting, but the collection does lend focus to Lucas' various contributions. Two rare live Beefheart tracks, "Flavour Bud Living" and "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles," demonstrate Lucas' mastery of Don Van Vliet's skewed songs, while "Spider Web" (co-written by Lucas for Joan Osborne's Relish, here sung by David Johansen) demonstrates just as much ease with more traditional blues. In light of such folky solo tracks as "Coming Clean" and "In A Forest," it makes sense that Lucas would later team with folk eccentric Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders. From Nick Cave's blustery, guitar-accompanied reading to DJ Spooky's abstract but simpatico turntable technique, Improve The Shining Hour is all over the place. But nowhere is it quite as surprising or welcome as it is during a haunting take on Popol Vuh's theme from Werner Herzog's Nosferatu, a moment of great delicacy and beauty that could go on forever.