April 2009 Friday’s Five by Roy Trakin
This twentysomething Midwestern singer-songwriter and University of Illinois alum did what so many dream of, but rarely do, packing up his Jeep and driving to L.A. in search of a music career. "I'm crazier than crazy," he sings over th mournful strings of "Mr. ClichŽ," and you have to be to try to break into the beleaguered biz at this time, but this regular Joe got lucky. He ran into Hollywood Concerts' Mike Giangreco, a longtime fixture on the L.A. scene a a social activist and promoter of shows at clubs like the Whisky, the Rainbo and, more recently, the Pig and Whistle and the Cabana Club. Giangreco took Hajek into the studio, brought in such talented players as legendary Bob Dyla keyboardist Barry Goldberg, Sweetwater's Alex Del Zoppo and a variety of musicians who've worked with the likes of Tom Waits, Los Lobos and Matthew Sweet, produced the album, then released the results on his own indie label From the Latin-flavored ambience of "4100," the address of an unnamed Sunset Blvd. club where everyone knows your name, and the flickering harp o "Acapulco" to the playful "Tangled Up in Blue" narration in "Lipstick" and the Van Morrison-like lament for the middle-class "American Dream", Hajek remains true to following his own muse, living up to his vow, "I'm getting out of this town.
He contemplates his own childhood over Del Zoppo's tinkling barroom piano in the bittersweet "Chicago," reminiscing about collecting baseball cards an "finding his soul in that southern song," wondering aloud why it's taken so long On "Always the Same," he laments his lack of money ("It comes and goes") over somber strings, while Goldberg's patented B3 organ helps tell th Springsteen-ish story of a small-town relationship going nowhere fast in "Only Thing He Knows". The deliberate "Belong" is an expression of the leap of faith which keeps him going, despite the obstacles, accompanied by a shimmering, sad-eyed guitar, as he sings, "Someday I'll found out... where I belong." Thanks to guardian angel Giangreco, it sounds like Joe Hajek's finally done just that, promising, "We'll stand up from the breakdown, and we'll build, build, build..."