"Robyn Hitchcock" is one of today's (and yesterday's) most prolific song writers. From his work in the "SoftBoys" of the late seventies/early eighties, through his solo work, Mr. Hitchcock has forgotten more songs he's written than most musicians will ever write. Director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia and the Talking Heads Stop Making Sense) has attempted to capture this long-time (if perhaps lesser known) songsmith in his documentary/tribute motion picture entitled "Storefront Hitchcock." Footage for the film was shot in a Manhattan storefront December 11th and 12th, 1996, where Robyn played solo acoustic for a small live audience. Since this is not new music, but rather a culmination of songs spanning his career, with numbers taken from "Fegmania!," "Eye," "Respect," "Queen Elvis," "Moss Elixir" and others, it's more special as a live soundtrack/live performance as opposed to a "Greatest Hits" compilation.

The disk plays like an intimate coffee house show, which it is, so I guess that makes sense - very personal with lots of story telling and crowd response. There is lots of stage patter which get their own song number, but are not listed as actual tracks on the credits, so the song titles read like 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, etc., and offer up little insights into the mind that is Hitchcock.

This is a release for the "Robyn Hitchcock" fan. Between the stripped solo live sound, and all the talk, those unfamiliar might miss the point of this as a soundtrack release, which is the sonic equivalent to watching the movie - a live performance of this album with some additional artistic footage one assumes.

For those unfamiliar with "Robyn Hitchcock's" work, these are a collection of sing-songy, rhymey ditties, sung with an almost tinny British Billy Corrigan type delivery. There's a wry sense of sarcastic humor that runs through "Robyn Hitchcock's" musings. He likes to play with vocal sounds like the "yip - yip - yip - yip" in the beginning of the aptly titled "The Yip! Song." Laid-back, melancholy, and introspective in it's intimateness, this is a talented and moody acoustical portrayal of his material that strays from liquid finger picking to the traditional background texture strumming, accompanied by a mostly storyteller brand lyrics.

Primarily acoustic, with some backing violins by Deni Bonet and some additional guitar work by a fellow named Tim Keegan, the number entitled "Freeze" is a semi-distorted, tense song, with an intentional sloppy, manic, downpick backbone that turns into a kind of improvisational noisy string bending excursion at the end, which adds a little texture to the primarily warm acoustic sounds of the rest of this set.

The collectable gem comes in the form of the Hendrix classic, "Wind Cries Mary," minus the Hendrix trickery, and adding a soulful harmonica in the solo spots, leaving a smoothly warm, slightly slowed down acoustic version.

This is a friendly disk - slightly eccentric in it's wanderings, but likable, listenable, and I suspect a must have in a true fan's collection. From the closing words of this fine performance, "Deni, Tim, Me, You, Goodnight (See you tomorrow)."