WILSON, GARY & TREDICI BACCI - Another Lonely Night In Brooklyn

Totally great live LP by Gary Wilson (the worlds forgotten boy) with a cover photo that makes him look like a dead ringer for the late Mike Kelley, back when Mike was a fake hippie. Anyway, Gary shouldnt need much of an introduction. If you dont know him, you might well access one of the many other LPs of his weve done. But then again, Another Lonely Night In Brooklyn might be just the place to start your own little wagon rolling down the road of Gary Wilson fandom. The tunes on this album are representative of the live set Garys been doing lately, with a heavy emphasis on tracks originally recorded around the time of his 1977 breakout LP, You Think You Really Know Me (FTR 236LP). What lifts things to a higher-than-usual level is the lovely musical backing provided by Tredici Bacci. This New York City unit formed to perform classic-era faux Italian film music, but they really find their own special place as Garys backing group. Wilsons best songs of longing and loss have always been built around strong narrative centers as much as melodies, but Tredici Baccis expansive accompaniment manages to give these narratives a width that is positively cinematic. And Im not trying to put down Garys other backing bands or anything, but I think anyone whos familiar with Wilsons work will have a similar response. The songs are not re-cast, but they feel a lot less compressed now, and this open-ness gives them a universality they didnt always have. No one would ever dare suggest that Wilson isnt a weirdo of the first order, but the sound of this album (and the jocularity of Garys on stage raps) might well bring him to a whole new audience. Let the era of Wilson-Mania begin. - Byron Coley, 2017.