Spencer the Gardener - 'Run Away With Lulu'

SANTA BARBARA, CA. (www.predatorarts.com) - Spencer The Gardener's fourth album is, in many ways, his most conventional singer-songwriter record since his 1991 debut, Boy With The two Big heads, Lulu is twelve songs of assorted vintage and narrative setting, rendered with a subdued, mostly reminiscent flair that smells of wood smoke and sparkles in the right places like stars in a clear summer sunset.
There is no connected, redemptive urgency to these stories; this is not Lulu. And there is no Spencer the Gardener Band to turn Barnitz's trademark compulsion to save and be saved into fireball baptism: You get Cougar Estrada on drums and co producing, Gary Sangenito on bass and features Nathan Birkey on trumpet & John Schnackenberg on saxophone - adding their usual color, personality, & individual musical stamp. A Santa Barbara native, Spencer sings, plays guitar and writes the songs on LuLu.
An otherworldly dream come true - a feminine name - (old slang) - any person or thing outstanding for some quality, as a beautiful girl, a difficult task etc. It's "Spencer the Gardener" & the new CD release "Run away with LuLu." Produced by Spencer & longtime STG drummer Cougar Estrada (also of Los Lobos, the Estrada brothers, & many more) LuLu connects on many different levels. Described as a Latin big band spy movie set on a moody tropical beach, "LuLu" ups the STG ante. While the sun may be shining bright, there is thunder in the distance & in the midst of it all - this lush melancholic beauty - the girl - is always leaving. Yet, as on other STG releases, there is a whimsical positivity.

LuLu features from the opening lyrics, "California driftin' and drivin' with the windows down" plays like a soundtrack to the Golden State. Not content with only producing - Cougar - plays drums, percussion, keyboards, piano, whistles & sings. Natural talent aside he plays mad scientist at times; the middle of "nice girl" is like a journey deep into the mind of Cougar.... step lightly when you get there.
The sound of Brett Larsen & his accordion add a new flavor to the STG mix - while bassist Gary Sangenito locks in the Saturn groove.... Another Cougar Estrada mad scientist moment occurs with the voice of dreamqueen Sarah Frischella flown in via cell phone on "nice girl" & recreated on a scratch track. Barnitz on almost everything else makes run away with "LuLu" a sense of nostalgia for something you may have never known or felt - a dreamy sense of Highway 1 along the coast which continues on & on & on interrupted at times by things like...well...life.
Listen for yourself at https://cdbaby.com/cd/spencergardener