Reviews
GLEN WAGNER
Perfect Piece of Time
Floating around Middle Tennessee for a few years now, singer-songwriter-guitarist and “laid back” enthusiast Glen Wagner plays happily soul-baring, transition-into-lakelife-inspired originals that musically blend the likes of Jimmy Buffett and John Fogerty with other popular easy listens in Wagner’s 10-track, independently produced debut, Perfect Piece of Time, released March 2021. Docked in a Wednesday night residency gig that began in June 2018, at La Vergne’s Memories Bar and Grill, the Wag landed concentric shows, drifting out to spots in Mt. Juliet and Lebanon, into the DoubleTree’s Burger Bar in Murfreesboro and, eventually, playing the perfect atmospheres for Wagner’s live shows: Hoppy’s Harbor Grill at Fate Sanders Marina and Percy Priest Lake’s 4 Corners Marina. All the while, Wagner was fine-tuning the album’s form into the Perfect Piece of Time we can hear today. Perfect Piece of Time’s concept seems a bucket list accomplishment of a New Jerseygrown, family-owned-dairy farmer retired to Tennessee for a relaxing next chapter of peaceful living flooded with nostalgia, a lake life and a sunny future. The feelgood proclamation and ostensibly autobiographical title track, “Perfect Piece of Time,” with accents of The Beach Boys’ group harmony, captures the jist of the album. And there’s an amiable kind of Australian, mid-career Paul Simon bongo groove in “Favorite Smile,” one of three tracks harmonized with lady friend Emma Ohm. There are calmer, more somber waters floated in Perfect Piece of Time as well. Musically, a sad, Chris Isaac-toned “A Place Called
ALBUM Home,” which uses the Wagner Dairy Farm in New Jersey (1917–2001) to emote an aging neighborhood patriarch’s attempt to pass down area memories and history passed to a young bicycler pedaling by, which gives the geezer a realization of how time has passed and the earth he knew is moving on. Also on a somber note, Wagner’s voice resembles an American Records-period Johnny Cash vocal styling in the Guns N’ Roses’-style outro piano-ed, soldier-coming-home march, “Out and About,” melodiously accented by Garth Hudson-style saxophone runs. Though small rocky waves are made trying to reel in and tie down some of the notes and harmonies attempted in the album’s softer tracks. The run of tracks six through nine is great enough to put on a high school best friend’s lake mixtape to blast out of Dad’s pontoon boat’s stereo system. Beginning at track six, “Let’s Lake It” is simply title-explanatory (just in case an explanation is needed, though: Sunshine. Baking. Tubin’. Moonlight. Bed.) and followed by “Quiet Little Cove,” a naptime Buffett groove about honeysuckle, eagles silently soaring and feet up on the seat. “Something About the Sea” flows into Faces territory with the layered 12- and 6-string acoustics, and, written in 1983, “Something About the Sea” very well could be the 38-year-old single that stayed in the back of Wagner’s youthful mind for a lifetime, eventually the catalyst to finish the lifelong goal of making a record one day. Much respect to that, but next at the end of this four-song fun run is a Huey Lewis-ish, blues-rock piano-filled, mind-clutter murdering “Overthinkin’,” which is the goofiest and has the best pound-for-pound lyrics of all. Actually, all of these songs are lyrical gold mines, surpassing an ironic listen to genuinely find a well put together, very wholesome album. Wagner throws in little comedy bits at the end of songs, uses some wacky sound effects in others, and seems genuinely happy with every chord and line. It’s wholesome to the point of suspicion, having a life nice enough to work a country/beach album about it. Keep an eye out for Glen Wagner’s Perfect Piece of Time on Bandcamp and CD Baby. Singles “Perfect Piece of Time,” “Let’s Lake It” and “One” can be found on Spotify, Amazon and YouTube. CD copies are available wherever Wagner is found. Find more on the artist and upcoming shows on the Wag’s Facebook page under Glen Wagner Singer/Songwriter. — BRYCE HARMON
MOVIE
THE KID DETECTIVE DIRECTOR Evan Morgan STARRING Adam Brody, Sophie Nélisse, Sarah Sutherland RATED R
Writer/director Evan Morgan’s debut feature-length film feels like a rarity these days: a true hidden gem. It might never have blipped my radar were it not for a niche (though not unpopular) YouTube channel and the lone recommendation of a good friend. Couple good word-of-mouths, along with a rental price on Amazon as cheap as a trip to Redbox minus gas, and you almost can’t afford not to watch it. Morgan’s The Kid Detective is reminiscent of another suburban-noir debut, Rian Johnson’s Brick. Though, where the latter creates a “cool,” “grown-up” world within a high school setting, the former focuses on what it actually means to grow up and be a grown-up. Adam Brody (The O.C., Ready or Not) stars as Abe Applebaum, a once-beloved kid detective who practiced out of his treehouse until success solving such high-profile cases as The Case of the Missing Fundraiser Money and The Mystery of the Water Tower Vandals landed him an office funded by the town and a lifetime of free ice cream. But when his assistant, the mayor’s daughter, goes missing, Abe’s inability to solve the case slowly sours the promising wunderkind, turning him into a washed up alcoholic in his 30s solving such low-stakes mysteries as Widow Gulliver’s Missing Cat. That is, until a
high school girl hires Abe to solve the mystery of her murdered boyfriend. Though not entirely new (Mystery Team with Donald Glover shares a similar idea), the conceit of a 32-year-old burnout employing the same teenage tactics he used to solve cases of candy theft to a real case of murder carries the film a long way. Brody is pathetic and self-pitying as adult Abe, but also overly confident in his sleuthing skills. Morgan’s direction and darkly comic script make every interview with every colorful suspect both an homage and a sendup of the hard-boiled detective genre, though never veering into irreverence. And maybe most importantly, every setup has a satisfying pay-off, from the most insignificant running jokes to the main mystery of the movie; the attention to detail is impeccable. As well as being technically taut, the darn film manages to sneak in a rather poignant theme to boot. Morgan and Brody delight in the absurdity of their “adult kid detective,” but they also treat it seriously enough to explore the very real and relatable causes behind Abe’s arrested development, culminating in an ending that at first feels out of left field but is both earned and effective. Like any good mystery, there’s more than meets the eye to The Kid Detective. — JAY SPIGHT BOROPULSE.COM
* MAY 2021 * 17
