Mando Saenz,
Watertown

Label: Carnival Recording Company
Year: 2005

(4 out of 5)

Mando Saenz is masterful at evoking nostalgia and melancholy in bite-sized, 3- to 4-minute chunks.

On Watertown, the Carnival Recording Company re-release of his 2002 debut, Saenz alternately dazzles and depresses with remembrances of times past.

The opener "Julia" somberly portrays a death-row inmate in his final hours, thinking of a former love at the close of his 40 years in prison. "Watertown" (listen to a 30-second clip) dredges up memories of simpler times in hometowns left far behind, whereas "When I Come Around" explores the safety net that makes some never want to leave home. "April's End" depicts a similar restlessness.

"Egg Song" brings about the first change in themes. Here Saenz sheds the sorrow in favor of sarcastic sexism:

Well, I don't need no cars or Honduran seed cigars
I don't need no hot stock dividend
Well little girl she satisfies, she kneads my dough, makes it rise
She cooks my eggs, she makes me smile my friend
And Betty Crocker was a pastry topper
Said man, I liked the way she spread herself so free
And Aunt Jemima was so so fine
Never took much to make her smile at me
Oh tell me baby
Am I crazy?

With "Egg Song," Saenz has all the right ingredients for a breakout hit: clever lyrics, snarky delivery, and a bluegrass-tinged lonesome sound.

"Rusty Steeple" marks a return to melancholic form, again working the fertile ground of homesick blues. "All I Own" depicts a desperate man hoping that love can stop his spiritual freefall. "Noble Kings" illustrates the slow passage of time.

"Engine Roll" signifies the second thematic intermezzo, this time depicting a railway romance with an interesting combination of bluegrass banjo and bayou accordion.

The lyrical finale, "Yonder Voices," portrays the confusion of a lost soul on a hot summer day:

Lazy eyes in June, won't you come around
Your path is burned down and wayward lies a tune
It lingers still and laughs about
Ever watching me figure you out anymore …
Come yonder voices call
So tell me can you feel?
It's an empty sound

After earning an MBA and working unfulfilling jobs in food sales, Mando Saenz appears to have found his niche as a plaintive singer/songwriter in the mode of early Townes Van Zandt or Lyle Lovett.

Saenz lacks the former's withering drollness and the latter's evocative storytelling instincts, but hopefully Watertown will help broaden Saenz's audience base and finance continued explorations of small-town pathos.

Buy: Lone Star Music, Amazon

January 19, 2005