Personnel: Greg Brown (vocals, guitar); Bob "Bo" Ramsey (electric
guitar, background vocals); Bob Thompson (saxophone): Radoslav Lorkovic (keyboards, background vocals); Rick Cicalo (bass); Steve Hayes (drums).
Personnel: Greg Brown (vocals, guitar); Bo Ramsey (electric guitar, background vocals); Bob Thompson (saxophone); Radoslav Lorkovic (keyboards, background vocals); Steve Hayes (drums).
Audio Mixer: Tom Tucker.
Photographer: Laurel Cazin.
In many ways this album marked a turning point for Greg Brown. His earlier work was much folkier, more acoustic-based and rural in theme and color. On ONE BIG TOWN he embraces a more electric, rock-oriented sound, and there's more bite and anger in his songs than before, as he rails against the simple pleasures of rural life being destroyed by greed and indifference.
"America Will Eat You" is a brilliantly vicious attack on the evils of consumerism in the U.S., while "The Way They Get Themselves Up" takes a cold-eyed look at the daily grind of the American workforce. But Brown wouldn't be the artist he is if his glass was always half-empty, though, and "Lotsa Kindsa Money" is a light-hearted look at the complications of international commerce, while "One Cool Remove" examines the spiritual plane to which one must retreat in order to maintain balance amid worldly strife. The album closes with the emotive plea "Tell Me It's Gonna Be Alright," as universal and basic a request as one can make; characteristically, Brown makes it as eloquently and artfully as one could want.
