Windmills Are Coming
Produced by Jay Williston and Joel Cage
Recorded by Jay Williston
"Hip Hip Hip Hooray!"
June 2000
Having made his way with a battered guitar, a well-known story and a road-tested sense of musical timing, internationally award-winning singer/songwriter/arranger/producer brings all those things (and more) to his first live album, Recorded at various stops along the way (including such legendary local listening rooms as Club Passim and The Kendall Café), Windmill s is Cage's lyrical tilt at the obstacles - both real and perceived - of the contemporary "folk" artist. From the sudden chorus of the eat-or-be-eaten tale of "Food Chain" to the anxieties of loneliness and aging shared in "Don't be a Stranger" and "Dinosaur," Cage faces his demons with typical style and flair, making his stories our stories (and vice versa). "Old Front Porch" and "Talkin Carny" are lightly lumbering tales of the road while "Elevator" and "Nobody" (from the album of the same name) mark some of Cage's worthy contributions to the unavoidable canon of romantic ballads. Forgoing his usual two cover rule, Cage treats us to a double portion which includes the crowd-pleasing pyrotecnics of "Streets" (an improvement on U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name"), the open and airy "Whole Night Sky" by Bruce Cockburn, the gentle opening strains of Bruce Hornsby's "Lost Soul" and a defiant and brash take on Townsend's "Won't Get Fooled Again." From subtle squeaks and slides to sidewinding fret twists and body-breaking attacks, Cage shows his hands and watches them twirl in his own musical breeze.
- Matthew S. Robinson