Devout Catalyst

AMG Review of Devout Catalyst

Sean Carruthers
All Music Guide

Following an invitation from the Grateful Dead's sound guru to appear on a 1990 New Year's Eve broadcast, Ken Nordine hooked up with head Deadhead Jerry Garcia and his longtime musical accomplice David Grisman, which resulted in his first studio release in five years. It's an interesting move for Nordine, who swaps his traditional jazzy backing for Garcia and Grisman's more free-form acoustic approach; thankfully, this new arrangement works quite well. Nordine is starting to show his age here: his voice is a bit deeper and takes on a slightly nastier edge in several places. He also seems to be hemming himself in somewhat -- either consciously or unconsciously -- with the increased reliance on rhyme. Either way, his easygoing storytelling is less in evidence here, and it's certainly missed. The unlikely collaboration of Nordine and Garcia aside, what should have been of even more interest on Devout Catalyst is the collaboration between Nordine and Tom Waits on two tracks. Both artists are masters of the wonko dialogue and though their musical styles had very rarely overlapped much, there was still a certain underlying sensibility that the two shared. "Thousand Bing Bangs" features the two artists taking turns at the microphone, hammering out fairly evenly cut pieces of two different dialogues and the track, which consequently never gels, winds up far less interesting than one would hope. A bit better is their second track together, "The Movie," which is a discussion of a movie that Nordine wants to make, with Waits mostly agreeing and saying "yeah." Despite the album's many other good points, these two collaborations are quite disappointing and even the most forgiving fans may leave Devout Catalyst with an aftertaste of wasted opportunity.