Moving collection of live performances drawn from 1977-2005

At first it seemed only a matter of timing that had Willy Deville and his band, Mink DeVille, part of the New York punk rock scene. Though they shared a stage with the Ramones, Patti Smith and Television (and toured with Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello), their music drew more from the Brill Building than CBGB. Signed to Capitol, the band’s first four albums were produced by Phil Spector protégés Jack Nitzsche and Steve Douglas, and each brilliantly melded the Drifters’ romanticism with electric blues, Latin influences and the downtown edginess of the Velvet Underground. What really made DeVille fit among the punk rock scene was his artistic daring; the band’s fine-tuned productions were the polar opposite of punk rock’s DIY aesthetic, but their music was a comrade in the sort of emotional authenticity that challenged the reign of corporate rock.

DeVille provided a visual center point for the act with his bouffant hair and pencil-thin mustache, crooning perfectly crafted originals and well-selected covers. Those who saw them in club dates, or touring concert halls with Lowe and Costello were regularly blown away by DeVille’s showmanship and the resonance of his music. Eagle Records’ seventeen-track set cherry picks live performances from 1977 through 2005, collecting along the way many of DeVille’s best originals, including “Venus of Avenue D,” “Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl,” “Spanish Stroll,” “Just Your Friends,” “Just to Walk That Little Girl Home” (co-written with Doc Pomus) and a moving version of his Oscar-nominated end-title theme for The Princess Bride, “Storybook Love.” Also included are covers of songs he made his own, including Moon Martin’s “Cadillac Walk” and Barry & Greenwich’s “Little Girl.”

Though DeVille issued live albums and DVDs of specific concert dates, this is the first set to draw across his early years with Mink DeVille and his later years as a solo artist. With his passing in 2009, his recorded legacy remains a shining light for fans to revisit and new listeners to discover. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]