Good Dog, Happy Man

1	Rain, Rain 2:45
2	Roscoe 3:43
3	Big Shoe 3:49
4	My Buffalo Girl 8:50
5	Shenandoah (for Johnny Smith) 6:09
6	Cadillac 1959 6:16
7	The Pioneers 5:16
8	Cold Cold Ground 9:01
9	That Was Then 5:29
10	Monroe 4:19
11	Good Dog, Happy Man 2:33
12	Poem for Eva 3:41

Barnes & Noble

Bill Frisell continues to confound and delight. Try to anticipate what direction his music will take, and he throws you a curve ball that leaves your ears buzzing. GOOD DOG, HAPPY MAN is touched by country, rock, ambient, blues, Americana, and pop music, yet it just can't be pigeonholed. Frisell, the anti-guitar hero, creates atmospheres rather than songs. Abundant melody and groove are interwoven with sparse guitar lines, snaky organ fills, and slithering slide- and pedal-steel guitar riffs to create sonic bliss. Tunes like "Roscoe", "The Pioneers," and "Monroe" slip into your consciousness through the back door and take up permanent residence. You'd be hard pressed to call GOOD DOG a jazz recording; swing rhythms and extensive improvisation sit out this dance. But the spirit of jazz -- that just-over-the-edge vibe that animates the most satisfying performances -- permeates every note of this recording. In his quiet way, Frisell has become a genuine American master. He creates the music; you get to figure out what to call it. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

No doubt pleased with his countrified direction on Gone, Just Like A Train, Bill Frisell gives us a lot more of basically the same thing here -- only with expanded numbers in the ranks. Bassist Viktor Krauss and drummer Jim Keltner return, now accompanied by Wayne Horvitz's understated organ and piano; Greg Leisz on an assortment of fretted instruments, including the dobro, pedal steel guitar and mandolin; and on "Shenandoah," Ry Cooder's atmospheric guitars. The first tracks of Good Dog, Happy Man pick up right where Gone, Just Like a Train left off -- low-key, perhaps too low-key -- but tracks like "Big Shoe" and "Cadillac 1959" add a bit of swagger to the lope and "Poem for Eva" sports the best tune. Again, Frisell often captures a loose, evolutionary jamming quality in these sessions, playing the country accents off of his jazz sensibilities. Unlike its predecessor, though, you can't imagine this being recorded on a backwoods front porch, for there are some production tricks and distant-sounding electronic loops that give away its Burbank studio origins. Purists on either side of the jazz/country divide are hereby warned to back off so that the rest of us can enjoy this. Richard S. Ginell