Witty and droll pop songwriter catalogs his catalog

Vaughn is most widely known for his compositional contributions to television's "3rd Rock From the Sun" and "That '70s Show," and from well-known covers of his songs by Marshall Crenshaw ("I'm Sorry (But So is Brenda Lee)") and The Morells ("The Man Who Has Everything"). Liner note readers will also recognize his name from production work he's performed for an array of artist that spans Charlie Feathers, Arthur Alexander, Ween, and Los Straitjackets. Ironically, his own carefully rendered recordings, starting with 1985's "The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn" and running through 2006's "Designs in Music" mostly remain the province of dedicated fans. His '80s and '90s releases with the Ben Vaughn Combo are a treasure trove of '60s style, clever lyrics, droll vocals, AM radio hooks and, ultimately, a surprising amount of emotion for a songwriter whose tongue is usually found in his cheek.

This 2006 volume represents the first in a series of recordings that promises to catalog all of Vaughn's songs - those he's recorded before, those he hasn't, and those recorded only by others - all waxed anew in a live-in-the-studio setting with his latest backing band, The Desert Classic. This isn't the first time Vaughn's rethought his earlier work; 1986's Many Moods of Ben Vaughn revisited a few titles whose original renderings didn't meet the author's later vision. But never before has he approached the task of sorting through his entire catalog and reimagining both the songs and the connections they form by appearing together on a CD. The titles on this first volume stretch from the 1986 debut CD The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn through 1999's A Date With Ben Vaughn, and though they're not necessarily radical reinterpretations, they're often thoughtfully recast.

Vaughn's current group leans to Americana, particularly in the use of organ and accordion, swapping the Brill Building vibe of many earlier renditions for a rootsier approach. The bouncy backing and happy-go-lucky vocal of the original "Big House With a Yard" is replaced here by a terrific electric guitar and a beseeching vocal that's spent a few more years locked up in the title's prison. Similarly, the classic "Shingaling With Me," originally an effervescent summer's night memory is heavier of heart here, the longing now seasoned with a dose of nostalgia. Most emblematic of Vaughn's shifting view of his own songs is "I'm Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee," originally waxed by Marshall Crenshaw in 1985, "covered" by Vaughn in 1986, and then reworked once more in 1992. His third version offers an upbeat arrangement that turns the earlier versions' despondency to stridency.

Nothing here blows away the original versions, but that doesn't seem to be the point. Instead, Vaughn's musical ideas have grown and changed, and like a father's modulating relationship with his maturing children, the songwriter's own maturation provides new insights to his works. While this is foremost a treat for longtime fans (particularly for the introduction of several titles Vaughn seems never to have released commercially), those new to Vaughn's dry, witty pop-craft will find these versions stand up alongside the originals. [©2008 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]