THE LEG UP: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians

OLDIE: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians

Recalling Ghost of a Dog (Geffen, 1990).

In the Deusner household, Ghost of a Dog ranks as one of the most underrated follow-ups ever. Following the unexpected success of their Geffen debut, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, the New Bohemians grew up quite a bit but refused to let go of their hippie-isms. These songs have soft hearts but tough minds. despite a few fretless bass riffs, these songs have aged perfectly. Kenny Withrow’s guitar appears out of nowhere with the right riff for the right occasion, and the drummer Matt Chamberlain and percussionist John Bush add textured grooves to “Woyaho” and “Mama Help Me.”

As a singer, Brickell possesses more natural charisma than she gets credit for, with a wide-eyed voice that sells the seedier details of “Carmelito” and the lump-in-throat hook of “Black and Blue” just as easily as the breezy introspection of the musical haiku “Oak Cliff Bra” and “This Eye.” “He Said” is quietly devastating, “Stwisted” darkly so: When she sings “I ain’t gonna kill myself loving you, I ain’t gonna break my own heart,” her voice remains clear and strong, as if mustering determination, but when she gets to the final soulful testimony (“Why make my heart go to bed at night beating alone?”), she’s a woman scorned but desperate, drawing out that whyyyyyyy angrily but make the rest of the question sound heart-rending.

Ultimately, Ghost of a Dog is a singer-songwriter album backed by the most inventive jam band you ever heard, but nothing here was a smash hit like “What I Am”—or even a modest hit like “Little Miss S.” What should have stocked every dorm-room CD rack during the early ‘90s was largely neglected upon release, and the band went their separate ways. Brickell married Paul Simon and road-tested a solo career, and the New Bohemians splintered. Even a 2006 reunion album couldn’t rekindle interest or color the band as more than a late-80s one-hit-wonder. In another universe, though, Ghost of a Dog is a career-making album.

Stephen M. Deusner is a freelance music journalist based in Washington , DC. Don't ask him about Norwegian pop or house rabbits, unless you have a few hours.