What do you get when you cross Bob Dylan's vocals from Nashville Skyline with Ballad of Easy Rider-era Byrds music, and illustrate the whole thing with funky fresh Doug Allen drawings? Daniel Schorr's latest album, Every Word I Say is True, of course!Brooklyn-based educator Schorr's second kids' CD on his Tee-Tot Records label is chock full of words, a veritable feast of lyrics, backed with one of the best rootsy country-rock soundtracks you'll ever hear on a children's album. Songs about a kid who never forgets anything, about the twelfth dimension, about dog-devoured homework, about brain appreciation; unbelieving adults, nagging parents (those durn grownups!), and snowball fights; tear-jerkers about bad luck and anthemic rockers detailing Santa's stab at musical superstardom.
This Owens/Haggard/Yoakum-influenced album brings the Bakersfield Sound hardcore, especially on "Elephant's Memory", "The Homework-Eating Dog Named Rover", and "If I Didn't Have a Teddy Bear", but two songs that break from the guitar twang are "I Was Lost, But Now I'm Found" and "The Emperor's Castle". The former, sung by Brian Dewan, is one of the best "oughta be on Broadway" tunes ever, and the latter, a synthesizer-driven socio-political statement, is reminiscent of The Monkees' "Zor and Zam".
So if'n yer littl'uns dig a weeping pedal steel and thick-string Strat solos, pick up Every Word I Say is True. Heck, go see Schorr play live if you're near Brooklyn and give him a big "yeehaw"!
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