EDITORIAL REVIEWS
The brilliant lyrics and jangling melodies of San Francisco Bay Area native Jimmy Silva are a superb fit for the often-abused tribute album format. Over the course of four luminous solo albums for PopLlama and East Side Digital, Silva would frequently step aside and let the lead-vocal spotlight fall upon singers as diverse as Sal Valentino of the Beau Brummels or Bill Jedrzejewski or Kim Wonderley, both members of Silva's final band, the Goats. Jimmy Silva died tragically in Seattle in 1994 at the age of 42 from complications after contracting chicken pox. But his small legion of friends and admirers have never forgotten Silva and his sometimes stirring/often melancholy songs. Like New Testament disciples, they have banded together on From A Faraway Window (SteadyBoy) to celebrate the music their dear friend left behind. Rock journalist Jud Cost and Texas Music Hall of Famer Freddie Steady Krc along with ex-Goats Kim Wonderley and Eric Scott have rounded up selections from Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck of the Minus 5 (and R.E.M.), Jon Auer of the Posies, Roy Loney of the Flamin' Groovies, Freddie Steady Krc of Roky Erickson & the Explosives, Christy McWilson, the Jigsaw Seen, Sal Valentino of the Beau Brummels, Dennis Diken of the Smithereens, the Young Fresh Fellows, John Wesley Harding and Chris Eckman of the Walkabouts in a technicolor, extra-large mural depicting the very best material from the haunting catalog of Jimmy Silva.