Although singer/songwriter
Bill Santen kept the band name
Birddog for four albums and a handful of other tracks between 1997 and 2003, the "band" was really just him and whoever else happened to be in the room at the time. Ditching the conceit at least temporarily,
Santen makes his solo debut with 2004's
In the Night Kitchen. A brief collection of eight songs almost entirely recorded solo and acoustic on New Year's Day, 2004,
In the Night Kitchen (title courtesy of a children's book by
Maurice Sendak) is the same sort of stark alt-folk that
Santen specialized in with
Birddog, stripped to its bare bones. Brief, elliptical songs accompanied by plain, folksy acoustic guitar chords predominate, and while
Santen does this sort of thing quite well, especially on the oddball story-song "Captain Blood and Saint September," the sense that one has heard this sort of thing before is unfortunately inescapable. The one ringer, and the album's best track by far, is the closing "Cincinnati Sings," which features
Santen in the company of harmony vocals, a viola, and electric lead guitar, musical textures that amplify
Santen's low-key melodic gifts; the song was produced by Paul Oldham, which means that musical comparison to early Palace is entirely apropos, but it's a more than promising ending that leads one to hope that
Santen's next record, either solo or with
Birddog, explores the joys of working with other musicians again. ~ Stewart Mason