While
Marshall Crenshaw's first two releases were self-contained efforts, built around his voice, guitar, and songwriting, and the rhythm section/backing vocals of Chris Donato and brother
Robert Crenshaw, his third,
Downtown, brought an assortment of studio hands on board without really sacrificing what makes him special. Following a return to a scaled-down configuration for the slightly disappointing
Mary Jean & 9 Others,
Good Evening, like
Downtown, employs the services of various sidemen and backup vocalists -- including
Kenny Aronoff,
Graham Maby,
Syd Straw,
Robert Crenshaw, and
the BoDeans -- and seems to be geared towards a more contemporary, marketable sound. Producers
David Kershenbaum and
Paul McKenna bring a veneer to his pop/rock, adding the occasional keyboard, steel guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and accordion, while
Crenshaw, for the first time, brings in a handful of ringers (
Sonny Landreth,
David Lindley, and
James Burton) to share lead guitar chores for the majority of the record. Furthermore, for the first time, he looks elsewhere for the bulk of the record's material, with half of the songs coming from other sources (two seemingly written to order), and three of the remaining five being collaborations. Still, he slips naturally into the words and music of artists such as
Richard Thompson,
John Hiatt,
the Isley Brothers, and
Bobby Fuller, bringing as much of himself to these tunes as he does to his own. Whatever the reason for the delegation of work on
Good Evening, the choices are good ones, and it works to varying degrees.
Good Evening, which was his final recording for Warner Bros., may not reach the heights of the first three, but there's a spark here that was missing last time out. ~ Brett Hartenbach