CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
ELVIN BISHOP: "Hog Heaven" (Capricorn):: Bishop is a road musician. He doesn't knock himself out making Great Albums, but he doesn't get all twisted up racing after Breakthrough Hits, either. He doesn't even Promote Product much—when he passed through in January, he mentioned his current LP only when he did a song from it, which happened once.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
by
Robert Christgau
ELVIN BISHOP: "Hog Heaven" (Capricorn):: Bishop is a road musician. He doesn't knock himself out making Great Albums, but he doesn't get all twisted up racing after Breakthrough Hits, either. He doesn't even Promote Product much—when he passed through in January, he mentioned his current LP only when he did a song from it, which happened once. Too bad, actually—with Amos Garrett on second lead guitar and Maria Muldaur on second lead vocal, these songs are solid boogie indeed, and I would have liked to hear him tell the story about how he outgrew his brassiere. B +
THE CARLA BLEY BAND: "Musique Mecanique" (Watt):: I'm attracted to Bley's humor, best displayed here in the title piece, a wry take orf the charms and imperfections,of the mechanical mode, not so much in machines as in humans. But this is basically desultory, hinting at the feckless formalism that obsession with texture so often conceals. Beyond the jokes, and the deliberately aborted moments of lyricism, she really doesn't have much to say. Weill sure did: And so (did Satie. B