The electric guitar notes slash across the keyboard chords and, at periodic intervals, a saxophone squeals. The husky, earnest voice sings literate lyrics that speak of personal determination in a suburban world. It's a heartland rock sound that achieved broad popularity in the 1970s, and Bill Chinnock is a master at it. Unfortunately, the Jersey Shore native, transplanted to Maine, came along in the wake of fellow Asbury Park hero Bruce Springsteen and the Midwest's Bob Seger. Initially, that got him a major-label record contract when labels were searching for their own Springsteens in the mid-'70s and earned him a release on Atlantic; Springsteen even obligingly abandoned his planned album title, Badlands, when Chinnock wanted to use it, though there was nothing to be done about the identically titled leadoff song from Darkness at the Edge of Town. But Badlands went nowhere, and it seems apparent that Atlantic initially green-lighted a follow-up and then got cold feet. At least, for a release on the artist's own independent label, Dime Store Heroes, partially recorded at Atlantic Studios, has quite a list of high-paid studio musicians: Andy Newmark, Will Lee, David Sanborn, Lou Marini, Lew Stoloff, Cissy Houston, Hamish Stuart, etc. For all that, it seems slightly underproduced. The Springsteen comparison is unavoidable, but on songs like "Queen of the Lower East Side," Chinnock recalls the sprawling arrangements and boxy sound of The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle rather than Darkness on the Edge of Town. Though at times you could mistake him for Springsteen (or Seger or Joe Grushecky or John Cafferty), Chinnock is often jazzier and more soulful, given to horn charts and backup vocal groups. Leaving aside the similarities to others, he is an effective songwriter who can put across a love song ("I Will Love You"), a biting social commentary ("Ironbound"), and an ambitious poetic statement ("Baby Look What They've Done to Me"). In some alternate universe, he would be the one topping the charts instead of Springsteen, but in this one he still makes a good competitor.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo