Seasick Steve – I Started Out With Nothing And I’ve Still Got Most Of It Left
Seasick Steve is a funny one. He always seems to be one of those idiosyncratic characters that borderlines towards novelty. Yes he’s essentially a hobo and spent the majority of his life a hobo, but it seems he uses and manipulates this to draw appeal. Which often brings things into question. Musically it is what it is really, he does seem to represent simplicity both in appearance and sound. For the most part of the record he is armed only with one of his personalised guitars and his raspy but at times tender voice.
The opening track which shares the albums title is a good rootsy, bluesy stomp with rather lush sounding backing vocals coming from straight from the sixties, that resembles the Stones during that period. The second track ‘Walkin Man’ is quite lovely, it reveals a soft, tender and quite affecting aspect to his voice; It’s probably the records highlight along with the next track ‘St Louis Slim‘ which is a ball busting blues number. The album opens nicely and feels deep in variation and diversity, which lasts for the first half of the record. The Grinderman collaboration on ‘Just Like A King’ is enjoyable, but by this stage you feel like the territory has been trampled on a little bit, Cave’s vocals aren’t really prominent enough and neither are Steve’s, so the full effect of the song is lost in the mix somewhat. The song has moments of greatness and then it slides back into familiar terrain.
I guess the downfall with the simplicity aspect of it is of course the limitations, and while the album starts in good stead and ticks along nicely it starts to wane somewhat. The speaking aspects of it, especially on the final track ‘My Youth’ seem a little contrived an almost unnecessary. Steve mumbles coherently but what he’s saying isn’t engaging or even interesting to be honest. His need to introduce songs as he would live at a gig also feel needless, as hearing tales firsthand at concerts are surely the point of such artists. So any personal element is lost. It makes one look back to Orphans, Brawlers and Bastards by Tom Waits and the stories he spoke, it puts things into perspective. Waits had you hooked, whereas Steve just simply can’t catch a bite. Tales of peanut butter and stoves just fall flat. The album if chopped down would have made a great E.P, but as an album it fails to captivate as it draws on, what was engaging soon becomes a little tiresome and ultimately by the end of the record you are less sure about your opinions of the opening of the record; which actually isn’t the case because it’s great, but by the end you begin to question both yourself and the record.