Alex Dupree - Talking to the Dog

Alex Dupree - Talking to the DogThe new record from Alex Dupree has an array of classic singer-songwriter touchstones — vintage JJ Cale, the thin, wild mercury of “Tombstone Blues,” Mickey Newbury’s weary poetics, No Other-era Gene Clark, the hobo wisdom of Michael Hurley. And a brilliant re-imagining of Hurley’s quietly cosmic/comic “You’re a Dog, Don’t Talk to Me” provides the LP’s spiritual centerpiece. There’s much more to Talking to the Dog than a tasteful record collection, though. Dupree has crafted a collection of songs for the here and now, both deeply introspective and wide open to the world. With such talented friends as Jolie Holland, Max Knouse, Eamon Fogarty and Michael Krassner all lending helping hands, it’s kaleidoscopic in scope, whether Dupree is lamenting a long-ago love affair on “I Can See Her In Your Eyes” or having a vision of the Voyager space probe floating through the endless night, blasting Chuck Berry on “Voyager Blues.” Check out a new classic.