Recorded in concert for the CBC at various locations in Canada, Vinyl Cafe on Tour is a two-CD collection of Stuart McLean's monologue-stories about Dave, his wife Morley, and their Toronto family, lasting a good two-hours-and-fifteen-minutes altogether. It's another high-quality anthology of amusing, keenly observed vignettes about parents growing into middle age, the humor stemming from the way they (and particularly Dave) get themselves into ludicrous predicaments, with the grace coming from how they extricate themselves without endangering the affectionate ties that bind them. Actually, the way Dave locks himself into a "Blood Pressure Chair" is about as ludicrous as The Vinyl Cafe gets. But most of the stories are about more common situations -- a child's birthday, a school Christmas concert, a visiting cousin -- though these always teeter on the edge of calamity, often tipped off by a well-meaning but bungling Dave forgetting or misplacing some crucial detail or other.
© Richie Unterberger /TiVo