RATSO – Stubborn Heart Review

Larry “Ratso” Sloman is not the type you would imagine to be releasing a debut album. A 70 year-old music journalist and author, Sloman followed Bob Dylan on his 1975 tour and wrote On the Road with Bob Dylan about the experience. Sloman also covered Lou Reed, John Cale and Leonard Cohen. His debut Stubborn Heart very much sounds like a lifelong music nerd finally given the opportunity to make an album of his own.

Ratso has a time-weathered voice, a soft-spoken sing-talk style that conjures Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits. The first track, “I Want Everything” plays as a tone-poem of unrequited desires, downtrodden and melancholic. Sloman sells it completely with his delivery.

Ratso is able to bring his connections from years on the outskirts of the music industry. On several of the songs, he shares a writing credit with The Velvet Underground’s John Cale. The second track, “Our Lady of the Light” is a duet with Nick Cave. The two pair together seamlessly as they trade off verse with an orchestral backing and is one of the highlights of the album.

“Living in the Moonlight” opens with a dialogue snippet of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, “Listen to them, children of the night, what music they make,” the perfect framing for the dark on gothic ode to a lost love.

The final track is a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” the 11-minute closer of off Blonde on Blonde. Ratso makes the song his own by adding a female backing chorus, making the song feel grander and works great as a last note to the album.

In an interview with Stereogum,  Sloman said that some of these songs had been “lying dormant since 1984” the album has a classical feel to it, it certainly doesn’t feel contemporary nor does it inauthentic or like a shallow attempt to recapture a bygone era and style of music. It feels as if it could exist at any time.  Sloman also seems to take it all in good humor. “Maybe I can be the Jewish Susan Boyle, the oldest best new artist ever and if that doesn’t pan out, I can always perform on subway platforms. Hey, I can get in for half-price”

Stubborn Heart is released by Lucky Number records and available on Bandcamp and other music streaming services.

4/5 Stars

Favorite Tracks: I Want Everything, Our Lady of Light, Living in the Moonlight, Dying on the Vine.