Another Hit for Heartbreak Radio4 Out Of 5 Stars
Australian Brett Every crossed my radar a few years ago when I made a post to a blog asking why we still had not found a gay Bruce Springsteen. Which is funny, because Brett isn't anything like The Boss. But he also isn't anything like your typical "gay musician," where everything is in hardcore dance electronica or is some sort of dance diva. Which makes Brett something of an outcast in gay music circles. He writes more in a personal style, and "Tales of Ten Men" is exactly what it's title implies, complete with an extra four songs. Heartbreak, separation, new love, getting back together, and even desperation (a bluesy live cover of Concrete Blonde's "Joey") are all on a first name basis.
Recorded rather spartanly, with sometimes nothing more than his strummed guitar or a piano and maybe a muted trumpet or chorus, "Tales of Ten Men" takes on fellows of many stripes. Some of the songs are new takes from previous discs. Two of them better their originals, especially "Mr Smith." Sung by the young lover to the upset father of his lover, it has a pain to it that the first version on "Fairy Godmother's Gone to Vegas" didn't. Then one of the 'bonus' tracks pays homage to Blanche Deveraux, his "Golden Girls" hero. Originally on "Camping Out," this live version seems a bit more tongue in cheek. But there's nothing cheeky about "Sydney," a heartbreaking look at a relationship that's drifted apart. With Every's bar-soaked voice, there's a certain desperation in the recognition that, while the love hasn't gone bad, it's just gone away.
The best is saved for the first of the first of the 'bonus' tracks. "It's a Beautiful Day" is a wonderful song that celebrates a pair of men getting married.
"And the Prime Minister said
by this beautiful law that
whatever beliefs,
we believe in love more."
It's enough to make a grown man pull out the Kleenex, I tell ya. "I hear music from the neighbors. Tom Waits, Bette Midler and they're singing the same song..." kind of sums the guy up in his own words. If you haven't found your way to Brett's music, this is a good primer.
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