Mike Keneally "Wooden Smoke"

(Released in 2001. Read the All Music Guide review.)   "When critics use the word 'mature' to describe somebody's music, it's usually code for 'old and boring.' Well, I'm wresting the word back to apply it in its proper sense to Mike Keneally's Wooden Smoke: this album is strong, gentle and wise. How many people do you know who can make a CD sound hand-carved? Beautiful." ---- Andy Partridge of XTC   Mike Keneally's tenth album contains some of the pop innovator's most elegantly adventurous and soulful music, set in a largely acoustic soundscape. A multi-instrumentalist with an unmatched pop cunning and an unrelenting gift for ear-twisting harmony, Keneally first rose to prominence as Frank Zappa's "stunt guitarist." His previous album, the critically acclaimed Dancing, debuted on three Billboard charts in 2000. Wooden Smoke combines Keneally's own multi-tracked virtuoso performances with several of his catchiest tunes. "At the end of 2000," reports Keneally, " I started playing a who