Tabloid News by Harvey McLaughlin

Harvey McLaughlin might just be the most elderly thirty-year old you’ll ever be lucky enough to meet. Hailing from San Antonio’s hard-scrabble deep southwestern quarter, the son of a seamstress and an auto mechanic, McLaughlin has spent about half of his life learning the ropes in a number of local bands; the eponymous Lord Harvey - a trio that might be compared to The Squeeze getting tangled up with Spacemen Three, The Sandworms - an incredibly loud gothic surf band, The Hares - a rootsed-up septet who shared the inspirations and captured the fire of The Blasters debut album and took it up a notch, and, the list goes on. For anyone who’s watched this progression take place, one listen to his new album ‘Tabloid News’ will show that this wasn’t squandered effort but a necessary part of the journey as it is all folded into a disciplined package.

‘Tabloid News’ is loosely conceptual, drawing on Harvey’s fixation and preoccupation with urban legends, science fiction and pseudo-science. But, rather than just throwing out a laundry list of uninspired phenomena name-checking he manages to create developed characterization and perspective inside the boundaries of two to four minute songs, no small feat.

Driving around the area near his home one can get a sense of how his young imagination was fueled. At the nexus of Lackland Air Force Base and the one-time Kelly Air Force Base, the semi-industrial blue collar neighborhoods are dotted with buildings and areas that appear largely untouched since the 1950’s. Colorful, down on their luck folks walk and stumble down the broad avenues drunkenly mumbling in local Spanish slang while young women pram push past with other small children in tow, oblivious. Meanwhile, military jets scream in formation overhead and behemoth C130’s slowly descend to over-sized runways. Oppressive technology at odds with ground-level reminders of the last century. Indeed, the entire city of San Antonio is ripe with ghost stories and urban lore: The Conquistador of Mission Espada, The Donkey Lady (not to be confused with the all-too real bordello fixture south of the border), Midget Mansion, The Ghost Tracks and, the tale from which McLaughlin drew the inspiration for his tune ‘The Devil in the Dancehall’.

The album has taken some time to come to fruition. Originally slated as an untitled project for McLaughlin’s one-time guitar band The Bottom-Feeders, Saustex label owner and ‘Tabloid News’ producer Jeff Smith cooled on the idea as he watched one band member miss an important show. Over the course of several months Smith came to the conclusion that McLaughlin’s musical and songwriting talents were being wasted amidst the volume and chaos of the garage band format and that Harvey should make a piano-based solo album. Initially reticent, McLaughlin gradually warmed to and then came to embrace the concept as he set about re-arranging old pieces, finishing new ones and and tightening up his chops on the ivories.

While on the surface the seven hundred-plus day trip to get to the finish line might seem too epic to realize the release for a small indie label, the verdict lays in the grooves and that verdict is “worth it”. McLaughlin has succeeded at reinventing himself - capturing the bawdy snark of Warren Zevon, the goofy, strange and sad humor of Randy Newman while glimpsing the pathos filled characterizations of Tom Waits and even the cheesy 70’s pop sensibility of Elton John at his height. All of this while not forsaking his 50’s rock’n’roll heroes Big Joe Turner and Jerry Lee Lewis. His intellect and patience with the process is to be commended. While he may be an old man trapped in a young man’s body, there’s good news for all of us: You can teach an old dog new tricks.

Harvey McLaughlin is an old man trapped in a young man's body. Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Randy Newman and that dude with the crazy hair from 'Ancient Aliens' and a comic book geek all rolled into one defiantly contemporary package.