This Midwestern Mike looks like Bill Murray mated with Dan Aykroyd and Michael Richards, and sounds like Randy Newman with some Tom Waits, Graham Parker, Elton John, Dr. John, and Professor Longhair thrown in. Too raucous R&B/ragtime to be a piano bar star -- he's too scratchy-voiced and proud to play Billy Joel's "Piano Man" -- the superlative-fingered, aggressive Maimone and bassist and drummer pump out jump 'n' jive with aplomb, panache, and abandon. Hey, the bottles of the LP title, evoking many bleary-eyed A.M.s of Gordons or Jim Beam, didn't empty themselves. And for a guy not long out of Notre Dame, he sounds like he's twice his age and has been thrown out of bars the world over for breaking beer steins and shattering shot glasses.
© Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover /TiVo