The Duck Hunter

Album Review

Certain to leave a few listeners absolutely obsessed, you could easily lose a weekend trying to tie the strange narrative in the liner notes of The Duck Hunter to Bill Foreman's profoundly vivid verse. Still, the obsession might be altogether justified, as each song reveals another chapter of this disjointed Odyssey-like adventure. Opening with the folky strummed guitar and vibrant imagery of "The Animal Shelter," Foreman immediately calls to mind Dylan at his most nasal, but as the song quickly kicks into a Chuck Berry-styled rocker, his voice more resembles an excited Tom Rapp. The laid-back church organ and shimmering guitar of the title track is highly indicative of the general spirit of the album, as many songs bend to places unexpected as their characters always seem to be on the brink of disaster. The unexpected Eastern European touches, somewhere between Klezmer and Russian Gypsy, of "The Sun Is a Mighty Lamp," morphs into a Latin-tinged rocker, only to revert back again. In short, one never gets the feeling of settling into the flow of the album. Just as unexpected, a cover of Jimmie Rodgers's "I'm Sorry We Met" is followed by the bashing garage band rock of "A New, Nameless Beach Town," with Foreman showing quite a flair for catchy primitive ditties. His verse remains brilliantly odd, though, using highly emotive images, frequently painting humans with animal characteristics and showing an amazing knack for simply stating the profound. Had this album been issued in the late 1960s it might not have caused much of a sensation, but in a era when a similar artist like Jack Logan can rise from home-recording obscurity and be considered somewhat profound, Bill Foreman's work should be seen as nothing short of dumbfounding.