FOR POP LOVERS, APRIL IS ROARING IN LIKE A LION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993                   TAG: 9304060093
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JONATHAN TAKIFF KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
FOR POP LOVERS, APRIL IS ROARING IN LIKE A LION
Get out your pencil and start marking the Tuesdays on your calendar when albums by the likes of Aerosmith, David Bowie, David Crosby, The Hooters, Bruce Hornsby and Run D.M.C. will magically materialize in music shops. For pop lovers, it's April that's roaring in like a lion, with dozens of compelling new compact disc releases.
Today:\ David Bowie's "Black Tie White Noise" heads this month's release list. His first solo set since 1987, the album reunites Bowie with producer Nile Rodgers and guitar slasher Mick Ronson, brings on cutting edge jazz saxophonist Lester Bowie (no relation) for Bowie sax duets, and flows craftily through alternative and glam-rock, modern-dance and world-music waters. Bowie proclaims the album "utterly unique, and certain to be as influential as it will be popular."
Ex-Free/Bad Company/Firm vocalist \ Paul Rodgers' heads a super session "Tribute to Muddy Waters." It's bolstered by Jeff Beck, Dave Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana and Slash on classics including "Born Under a Bad Sign" and "Hoochie Coochie Man."
Floating out of the mist are\ Bruce Hornsby's "Harbour Lights," stretching out his folk-gospel jubilee style with support from major buds such as Jerry Garcia.
Sensitive stuff also arrives from\ David Crosby with "Thousand Roads" and\ Janis Ian with "Breaking Silence." Heartier brews include\ Pere Ubu's "The Story of My Life," veteran blue-eyed bluesman\ John Mayall's "Wakeup Call," another\ Eddie & The Cruisers (a.k.a. John Cafferty & Beaver Brown Band) session "Tough All Over" and the self-titled debut by U.K. sensations of the hour\ "Suede," offering a Bowie-influenced sound.
April 13:\ Porno for Pyros, fronted by Perry Farrell with half his mates from Jane's Addiction, promises to please diggers of their psychedelic sludge.\ Vince Neil's first solo album "X-Posed" should do the same for head banger fans from his Motley Crue daze.
\ Kenny Rogers declares "If Only My Heart Had a Voice" while the eerie, Orbison-ian romantic\ Chris Isaak returns with "San Francisco Days."\ Bryan Ferry's "Taxi" finds that cool English art rocker warbling faves scribed by others, including a very spooky "I Put a Spell On You."
Also coming on the 13th - a harder guitar-cranking session, "Get a Grip," by\ Aerosmith,\ Warren Zevon's live in-concert solo session "Learning to Flinch,"\ Joe Ely's "Live Shots," cool jazzpop vocalist\ Michael Franks' "Dragonfly Summer," Cars crasher\ Ric Ocasek's "Negative Theater," and "The A List" by\ Wir, an edgy English band you used to know as Wire.
Plus, an environmental benefit album "Put On Your Green Shoes" offers music for all ages from Cyndi Lauper, Indigo Girls, Kenny Loggins, Willie Nelson, Richie Havens, Olivia Newton-John, Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, Tom Chapin, Tom Paxton and Dr. John.
April 20 brings the delayed American release of "The Happy Club" (a critical and commercial hit in Europe) from sardonic singer-songwriter\ Bob Geldof, and the "all analog" "Earth and Sun and Moon" recording from Australia's righteous\ Midnight Oil.
Low-profile English guitar legend\ Jeff Beck comes out of hiding with "Crazy Legs," his tribute to 1950s American rockabilly original Gene Vincent.\ World Party addresses the human condition on "Bang!" Urban country tastes will be well served by\ Patty Loveless' "Only What I Feel" and\ Lari White's "Lead Me Not" (produced by Rodney Crowell). Cajun folkies\ Beausoleil deliver "La Danse De La Vie" while New Orleans pop legend\ Aaron Neville takes "The Grand Tour" from Creole to country, Philly soul to sanctified (the latter blessed with harmonious Linda Ronstadt).
Also due on the 20th - hard core\ Primus' "Pork Soda," Afro-popsters\ Johnny Clegg and Savuka's "Heat, Dust and Dreams,"\ Frank Zappa's "Yellow Shark" and\ Billy Squier's "Tell The Truth."
Collectors will relish a lavish\ Jethro Tull "25th Anniversary Box Set" and 3-CD overview of\ Ella Fitzgerald, "First Lady of Song," both laden with previously unreleased live performances.
April 27 action includes hip hopsters\ Run D.M.C. getting "Down With The King," the first solo album "12 Songs" by ex-Replacements leader\ Paul Westerberg, and\ The Hooters' made-in-Memphis "Out of Body" experience, which harks back to their successful "Nervous Naght" sound.
That throaty Lone Justice front woman\ Maria McKee declares "You Gotta Sin To Be Saved" and\ The Posies' deliver the "Frosting on the Beater." Washington, D.C., guitar wizard\ Danny Gatton returns with "Crusin' Deuces" while\ Raging Slab cranks "Dynamite Monster Boogie Concert" with heavy string arrangements by their main man from Led Zeppelin,\ John Paul Jones.
Happy listening!

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB