Grandpaboy – Dead Man Shake

An autobiographical, Chuck Berry-style homage to his hometown, “MPLS,” re-introduces us to Paul Westerberg’s alter ego, as the Gen X garage-rock icon embraces gut-bucket blues, Sun Studios rockabilly and honkin’ country for a label that specializes in it. Though it coincides with Martin Scorsese’s much-hyped PBS blues special, there’s nothing calculated about Westerberg’s embrace of roots rock. Instead, the move seems to have liberated him artistically, especially as a guitarist, where his riffs have an unself-conscious abandon (the B.B. King-like “No Matter What You Say” and the Keith Richards riffing of the title track). The vamping, harp-blowing Stones-by-way-of-Jimmy Reed shuffles, “Vampires & Failures,” “Got A Get A Move On” and “Bad Boy Blues,” mark the lyrical/musical connection to the ex-’Mats’ younger, funnier period. He also mixes covers of John Prine’s “Souvenirs,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and the Anthony Newley lament “What Kind of Fool Am I?” with the not-so-clear-eyed, last-call heartache of classic saloon ballads like his own, “Here Comes the Regular.” Thankfully, this one-time post-punk rocker still knows how to shake things up.