Dan Reeder

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"This New Century," Dan Reeder (Oh Boy)

Sometimes the most effective songs are simplest. Dan Reeder not only understands that. He embodies it.

The gruff-voiced, old-soul singer almost writes campfire songs for curmudgeons. "This New Century," Reeder's third album released on John Prine's Oh Boy Records, contains 20 songs, nearly half of which are less than two minutes long. Yet, nearly all are enchanting.

Reeder plays mostly instruments that he built himself (guitars and electronics) and sounds so low-key that he could be just a few notes from unconsciousness or simply clamming up.

The songs sometimes seem like cryptic little notes. "Angels May" may be about nurses or real divine emissaries who take care of Reeder's needs: "On a good day they may feed you ravioli right out of the can." "I've Been Hiding" finds the singer holding out in a cave, getting low on smokes and cereal and pining for Canada. "She Won't Even Blow" is a somewhat bitter missive about a lover who is not exactly "good, giving and game" as sex columnist Dan Savage would define it.

"James Brown Is Dead and Gone" is nothing but a simple industrial looped beat and a few funereal organ notes while a multi-tracked Reeder sings only: "I get up and read the paper, James Brown, James Brown - James Brown is dead and gone" followed by some soulful "hoo-hoo-ooo's." It is not a joke. It's just all the song needs.

Then there's "It Feels So Good," a perfect song for a long vacation or a balm for the unemployed: "I have been away from work so long I can not remember what I do - and, God, it feels so good."

However, it's the slightly more complex numbers on "This New Century" that pack the biggest punch.

"Bitch Nation," the opening track, presents a feminine metaphor for the state of the United States: "There's a puddle in the driveway from last night's rain, a car up on blocks and a dog on a chain, it's actually simple, but it's hard to explain, and she sleeps with the TV on ..."

And, Reeder's muse on the possible lack of an afterlife, "Maybe," rolls through some personal experiences which lead him to the conclusion: "from down here it appears that when they're gone, they're gone."

"This New Century" may be too primitive for some, but for the rest of us, Reeder's beyond back-to-basic approach works like a charm.