Madison's most enduring street musician makes a lot of campaign promises on the title track of his new album. They're not the usual stump speech fare. "If I was governor," bellows Schlosser, "the mansion's kinda big; I think I could let some homeless people live with me there."
Schlosser has never had a problem making a lot of new songs in a little amount of time. That's because he relies on a comfortably familiar formula: Mid-tempo strumming of a few acoustic guitar chords; endearing and shrill lyrical rants that are starkly liberated from all self-consciousness. He slows down the tempo on the reflective track, "Scott Walker Blues."
The disc is an audio memory book of Capitol scenes from February and March. Song titles include "What Democracy Looks Like" and "Kill the Bill."
The art of Art Paul isn't the quality of his music. It's the qualities of his musical persona. He's honest, simple and accepting of himself and others. And that's more than we can say about our politics in 2011.
