Music Review: Keith Munslow's Exclamation Point!

I've known Keith Munslow for just about 30 years  I first met him in 1991 when he was performing for the Big Nazo Puppets, and I spent a short stint with them performing as a masked actor/puppeteer.  We probably did 8-10 gigs together as part of Big Nazo.  (Hmmmm... thinking back on it, I mostly did holiday themed shows with Keith.  We did a Halloween show, a Thanksgiving show, a Christmas show, and oh, yeah, a fair housing show at a Catholic School.  Is fair housing a holiday?  It definitely should be!)

Keith is a brilliant musician and performer, and over the years I've watched him grow as an artist.  I'm a big fan of his work.  I've seen musicals he's written, watched improvs he's directed, rocked out to his blues bands, and listened with delight to his children's music.  I've also eaten at diners with him at 3 am.  When I was directing the now defunct Bright Night Providence, the New Year's Festival, I hired Keith as often as I could, both for his kid's programming and then at night, if he was available, for an adult swing/blues program.  

What makes Keith a great performer are two things:  his virtuosity as a musician and his sense of humor.   Both of these are on display on his latest family music album Exclamation Point! 

Keith manages to meld a number of different musical styles, and makes them original and entertaining and fun to listen to.  On this album, he's got jazz numbers, show tunes, a tango, straight hard rock, and probably a few other styles I don't know.  All of them are original, and feature a combination of Keith's clever word play, bouncing rhythms, and sense of play.  

I'm especially fond of Drummin' Is Free, which is a rap/drum corp song (Keith is known as a piano player, but he is an excellent drummer.  One of the funniest improvs I ever saw him do was him playing Marching band cadences as the folk song of his people.  I was in high school band too, and they are folk songs!)  

 I also really like Waiting For The Pizza, a song that is a rollicking western number about anticipation and the meta song These Are Not The Words, which is about a guy who doesn't know the words to the song. I know that feeling really well!

There are 11 songs on the album, and all of them are worth listening to and will get your toes tapping and the muscles of your mouth curling upward into a smile.  And that's Keith's real virtuosity-- his ability to entertain.

You can purchase Exclamation Point! on Apple Itunes or directly from Keith on his website.  (and while you are there, check out his other albums, and songs including the newly released Poultry-geist sensation Ghost Chicken, and Benny's The Musical, a theatrical love album to one of Rhode Island's most beloved stores (that sadly has gone belly up)

 

EARWORM: Keith Munslow Tiny Destroyer

I need to warn you in advance that I am prejudiced towards Keith Munslow.  I have been listening to him play for nearly 25 years, in a ton of different musical incarnations, and I've loved all of it.  So if you are looking for an unbiased review, you should look elsewhere.  My opinion of his work is biased by experience and knowledge.

I first met Keith in 1989.  I was stage managing a vaudeville festival in Maine, and Big Nazo Puppets was playing the festival, and the closing night party was a fundraiser being held in a giant mansion.  Keith was playing piano for the puppets, and we all ended up at 3 am playing ping pong and eating pizza in the attic of this huge house.

A couple of year's later, I was performing with Big Nazo, and spending time with Keith in rehearsal, in performance, and then at very late night diners, eating breakfast at 3 am and trading stories about gigs.  Keith also taught me what a jazz monster Fred Rogers was.

I have also enjoyed Keith's work as a composer for the Perishable Theatre's original musicals that toured around the state; his work with the Neo 90's Dance Band, the house band for AS-220; his barrel-house blues bands The Smoking Jackets (and later the Superchief Trio);  and a variety of other gigs, bands, and other musical configurations and conflagrations.   And Keith is also an excellent visual artist.

When I was the director of Bright Night Providence, I hired Keith nearly every year to perform, both his kid's performances, and his blues band.  He's that good.

So without even listening to his new cd  Tiny Destroyer, I can tell you with confidence that it's really good and you should get it.

After listening to it, I think you should run out and get it right away.  I will wait.

Keith's work over the years has matured, and his abilities to blend the comic and the sweet have deepened with time.  I think it's a combination of practice and good mentoring (Keith has played and worked with Bill Harley for a number of years, and you can hear Bill's influence in Keith's storytelling.)

Luc and Keith (photo from Providence Journal article)

I also think that Keith's work has benefited from the arrival of his own Tiny Destroyer, 2-year-old Luc (or Prince Luc if you are so inclined)  Keith's work has always been funny and original, but I think Luc has changed his understanding of kids (and parents) in a way that makes most of his funny songs hit home a little harder, and his more soulful songs have a little something something.

My favorite song on the album is probably "Dad Is Takin' A Nap"  (click to hear a sample) which lays down a funk groove while warning kids not to wake the big man, and that perhaps they should consider practicing their mime routines.  It's got Munslow's blues feeling, with some funk and rap thrown in for good measure, and it's a song that will leave you humming it for months.  I also really like "Coffee Breath" which exposes a major flaw in java-juicing adults.  And also "Intelligent Clam" which tells the story of a marvelous mollusk.  And the title song "Tiny Destroyer" an anthem to the destructive power of toddlers.

Basically I like all the songs, and I think you will too. (But I'm biased by experience.)

Here's where you can get the CD on Amazon.