LSU
Dogfish Jones
Reviewed by Brad Caviness
Even Mike Knott's most ardent supporters will usually admit that his work is uneven. And that's the case with Knott's new LSU project, Dogfish Jones. When given the opportunity to do this record, he could have taken the money and delivered an armload of unused Aunt Bettys demos. Instead, he delivered a Homeric tale told through Irish sailing songs filtered through psychedelic rock. Dogfish Jones is the story of a sailor who hits the high seas to seek adventure and fortune. Musically, the record is an eclectic grab bag of sounds. Some of the ideas work and some are less effective. Knott's father contributes a pair of Irish sailing/drinking songs ("Storm at Sea" and "The Bayos") to the record to establish the setting. They're good (maybe even great) songs for the genre. But they're a little out of place, perhaps intentionally so, on a rock record. Lounge jockey Gene Eugene plays Hammond B3 on several cuts, and it's a new twist on the raging guitar sound that is LSU's signature. But as the hook to over half the record, it gets monotonous as well. Knott tries to cover a lot of territory, musically and thematically, on Dogfish Jones. It's a good record, considering he only spent a couple of weeks on it from conception to finished master. But given more time to simmer, Dogfish Jones could've been a great record.