Jabbering Trout - Swell

NOTE:  I was unable to find a place online that streamed this album, and I was uncomfortable uploading it somewhere without permission.  The links included all go to the Internet Archive where there's a live recording of the CD release performance.  I've noted the track number after each link.  Any song without a link wasn't played at the show.

Here's another choice cut lifted from the discard bin at WNHU, West Haven.  Honestly, most of the CDs in the bin were crap, but sometimes you can find a diamond buried in the... um... stuff.

I can hardly find any information about Jabbering Trout.  After scouring the Internet for a few days, here's basically what I came up with:  Jabbering Trout consisted of two main members, Tom Burris on guitar, harmonica and vocals and Dylan Callahan on drums and backup vocals.  Burris basically writes all the material.  He was a New Yorker turned Bostonian that wanted to be a writer but ended up doing the singer/songwriter thing instead.  He played solo for a bit, then formed Jabbering Trout for two self-released albums, got disillusioned and went back to solo performing, changed his mind and reformed the Trout, then pretty much vanished from the scene.  From what I can gather, Swell is the second of the two releases.

First off, this album has one of the worst album covers in the history of music.  I'm not truly sure what the statement here is, but WOW, that's just awful.  Seriously.  This definitely makes a great case for the idea that no matter how good the music is, you've got to get the listener's attention first.  I love this album to death now, and it got my attention for sure, but I have to say that this doesn't make for a good first impression, so let's just skip that and get right to the content.

As soon as What You Got [track 2] starts, it's obvious that this is a unique band.  The gunshot of the snare drum, the angular groove, the off-kilter chord progression... and then his voice.  It took me a few listens to figure out if I dug this or not, but I just couldn't stop listening to it.  It's so oddly captivating, and I'm not sure why it all works together but it just does.  Burris' voice is a strange baritone; strange in the same way as that Crash Test Dummies dude is, but far more listenable.  Somehow the harmonies are made to work, and then there's a truly beautiful chorus.  How does no one know about this band?

Touch It [track 22] starts out a little more standard, but then blasts into another off kilter chord progression.  There isn't anything musically incorrect here, just wonderfully non-standard.  And again with the snare drum... how is it that it works and isn't obnoxious?  The more I listen to this album, the more I dig it's weirdness.

From here on out we get into more standard singer/songwriter fare.  War Between The Sexes [track 4] has this great singable melody, and a bit of Somewhere Over The Rainbow in the break for good measure.  Tumble On [track 6] has a lighter touch and Callahan goes brushes, so we get a break from the snare for a bit.  Babydoll, The Beauty Queen's [track 20] best moment is "You're everything a boy could want, and smart too!"  Nice.

Now we land on Pregnancy Tester [track 14].  The intro is fantastic, especially his pronunciation of urine as ur-eye-n.  The delivery is sufficiently droll as well, and the rest just takes care of itself.

Left Unsaid [track 9] brings us back to the singer/songwriter plate, and Summer [track 17] is Callahan's sole entry as a composer.  It's appropriately happy and upbeat, as you would expect any song named Summer to be.  Damn Fantastic [track 7] is another great happy song.  Somehow Burris manages to take a topic which has been covered over and over to death and still make it his own.

My favorite track on the whole disc is Lost And Gone [track 5].  The harmonies off the top are bizarre and brilliant, the story is gorgeous, the melody is incredibly singable... damn fantastic, if I do say so myself.  I get wrapped up in the song and have to stop myself from starting it again at the top once it's done.  Really great.... I dunno what else to say.

The record rounds out with After Saturday [track 13], a nicely obligatory closing ballad.  A pretty song, but I'm pretty done after I shot my wad on Lost And Gone.  It's really the only way to close out the whole experience.

So there you have it: Jabbering Trout.  At first I was turned off by the monotony of Callahan's snare, but then it became one of the things I dig about this album's simple production.  Burris' voice is so unique and he handles it well, and he is a great storyteller.  He's one of those guys that can create a very clear picture of a scenario or a moment, akin to Ben Folds or Paul McCartney.  I first heard the name when I used to troll rec.music.phish (newsgroups: remember those?) and after finding the disc in the throw-away bin, I never heard or found anything else from them.  Tom Burris has a website (TomBurris.com) but it's frustratingly lacking info or music.  The same is true of his MySpace page, which has a mere four tracks on it.  What happened to this guy?  Was he another casualty of the music industry?  I feel that way about myself often, so as curious as it might be for an artist so unique, it's understandable.

Tom, if you're out there, this album kicks ass.  I want more.