The Indomitable Pop Pastries of the Posies; or, can two really make better than one?

Sitting here, on a third, fourth, and fifth (six, seven…oh forget it) start to this piece that is supposed to comment on Ken Stringfellow’s wondrous record Touched and I’m trying desperately to separate this music from the Stringfellow’s better known Posies work. I don’t want to turn this thing over into a commentary on the band that was, and apparently, in times of convenience, still is The Posies. But…

But what? But I can’t get past it. Until…"Uniform"

"Uniform" is the sixth song on Touched, and it’s a strangely soaring tune that separates itself from the more Posie-esque sounds that surround it mainly on the wings of Stringfellow’s positively Eric Carmen-ized vocal swings; a voice reaching up into the anglicized falsetto stratosphere. It’s not an enormously distinct severance from his Posie past, but that sort of shift, a truly dramatic change from the pop doppelganger that was (and is) Auer/Stringfellow, is probably impossible. But it is a lift, a fantastic leap awash in varied shades of the Posies true colors. Touched sounds Posie-esque to be certain, but so does Auer’s 6 ½, and there’s no escaping the past in the foreseeable future. Maybe that’s why The Posies cannot die. How’s that for hope?

But enough of that; enough of the Posies talk that I was trying to – unsuccessfully – avoid, Touched deserves plenty of word space on its own goddamn merits, of which there are more than a handful. First off, there’s that steel guitar proto-country steel guitar that threads its way through the wonderfully wordy "Down Like Me". Oh, and then there’s that woo-woo/hum-hum organ in "This One’s on You"; against Stringfellow’s soft whisper vocals the organ whines and wheezes from carnival to cathedral, Stringfellow moves from breathless to bellow. Touched is filled with, well, um, touch. It’s a record that seems to find its way in such small, nearly silent moments that it’s easy to lose yourself in the musical moment. Its sounds are soothing; it’s treasures buried.

So it becomes a record that bears and holds up to repeated listens. It’s notable that Stringfellow’s publishing tag is the curiously accurate SOFT Rebellion Songs – because his are just that - gentle, often beautiful tunes that quietly use their stage, the frame they exist in, to rebel. In so many ways this music is Stringfellow’s revolt against pointless pop malaise, his assault on the malaise of the "noise = anger" era, a rebellion that (re)claims the ideal that music can be pretty and say its peace.

But that’s probably digging to deep for most. Would it hurt just to sell you on the idea that Touched is quite elegant? That it is an exquisite example of pop craftsmanship? That the songs reek of melodies, harmonies, memorable riffs and refrains? Would it be better for me to simply say that this record, Touched, is a terrific pop record that, if you wish to delve deep, holds a bit of mystery; that it is a record that can be swallowed whole or savored simply, both with utterly satisfying results – neither making me right or you wrong (or vice versa)?

Because Touched is a very good record. And while it’s mostly indistinguishable from its Posies predecessors (a good thing to be sure), it does deserve the distinction of being Ken Stringfellow’s baby; just as Jon Auer’s terrific 6 ½ record, for all of its Posies manifestations, deserves the recognition of being Auer’s.  And what the hell, we may be better off for it - if only because these twin talents are easily as effective alone as they are together.

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