New York Times Jon Pareles’ Top Ten albums include TEMPEST at No.3
“Tempest” (Columbia) Sure, his voice is a wreck. But nothing any prettier could encompass the bitterness, sorrow, lust, nastiness, longing, vengeance and backhanded humor that course through the songs. The music imagines some phantom roadhouse where blues, honky-tonk, doo-wop, an old-timey ballad or an Irish waltz might materialize; the verses roll on and on, with a little doggerel but a lot that cuts to the bone. Envisioning death and destruction, the songs stay ornery to the end.
