SILVANUS SLAUGHTER
WESTERN HEART VOL. ONE
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It's part one of a new pop opera, and "Don't confuse my western heart with your / pop mentality / I'm good for the long haul, baby!"

Sixteen witty, jangly, funky entries transverse the dark irony of a romantic soldier killed in Iraq while his girlfiend shacks up with a Stateside lawyer ("The Minstrel"); the dance-floor-meets Elvis Presley-sexual fever of "Kiss Me, Darling, Kiss Me," ; "I'm the Midnight Cowboy's" brazen come-and-get-it bravado ; "Little Dream" and its sweet, acoustic longings; and most controversial, the punchy country/hip-hop ballad about two Eastside L.A. Latino club boys "snorting up speed and reading maagazines" that morphs into a Hard Work Wins Everytime anthem no conservative could dare dislike, "Joey and Riiccardo."

It's true Western, with samba, folk, club beats and Slaughter's unique penchant for dreamy melodicism and incisive lyrics tossed into the potion.

The Sky is Splashed with Stars
Hey, Irish Man
Wait for the Healing
Her I Am, Seventeen
Kiss Me, Darling, Kiss Me
Full Moon in Carolina
I'm the Midnight Cowboy
Today She Found the Note
Little Dream
The Minstrel
Dreaming of My Love
Shining Friend
Her Trip Alone to Paris
Joey and Riccardo
Stay 'Til Tomorrow
Western Heart