Lisa Ann Wright: Reviews

LISA ANN WRIGHT
SWEET BYE & BYE

This is a very classy album. Lisa Ann Wright's songs are a variegated lot: "Last Gift" is a remembrance of her father's last words to her as he was fading. "The Shore" is for her mother. "Wendy's Song" is sung through the character of Wendy Coffield, the first of serial killer Gary Ridgway's forty-eight victims. "The Letter" chronicals the tragedy of Akira Nishihira's family suicide. "Soup, Soap and Salvation" is a wry view of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Kroc, founders of McDonald's. "Everywomen's Blues" ponders being "just another white girl singing the blues" despite a pretty comfy life. Nice jazzy feel here especially following Lisa Ann's torch song for "Someone" who mattered a whole lot. "Friend in the Fall" tries to make sense of a broken relationship. "Lucinda" is a rocking tribute to Ms. Williams.


With the variety of themes come a variety of settings. The opener "Lucinda" as noted flat out rocks. "Soup. Soap" is just Lisa Ann and Ira Gitlin's banjo. Bobby Martin's pedal steel and Benjie Porecki's organ lend "Last Gift" warmth and country comfort. In "Wendy's Song," an eerie opening sound segues to an urgent, grim melody driven by guitar, banjo and double bass. Al Petteway's gentle guitar brings out the despair in "The Letter." The jazziness of "Someone" and "Everywoman's Blues" is bracing.


Sweet Bye and Bye is beautifully produced and engineered with lovely sound to best showcase Lisa Ann's warmth.

Trendy Monkey


Reviews


Lisa Ann Wright "Sweet Bye&Bye
Jack Johnson "Sleep Through the Static"
Dutch Cousins 'Traveling Songs"
Pete and the Pirates "Little Death"
The Wombats "A Guide to love, Loss and Desperation"
Vampire Weekend "Vampire Weekend"





Lisa Ann Wright

Sweet Bye&Bye



It is probably only a coincidence that Lucinda Williams’ long-awaited new album was released the same week as Lisa Ann Wright’s debut CD, Sweet Bye&Bye, but there are more than a few similarities between the two. They both deal with loss and death; Lisa and Lucinda sing about the recent deaths of their mothers. Lisa goes a step further and takes women as her major theme – all kinds of women -- including victims of serial killers, victims of Japanese gangs, white female blues singers, women who have been disappointed and those who disappoint. Lisa takes a wry look at religion and death, and her songs are populated with serial killers, the rich, parents, daughters, friends and preachers, all who may need redemption.

The first song on Sweet Bye&Bye is about Lucinda Williams herself -- one of Lisa’s personal musical heroes. In the rave-up, accordion-driven “Lucinda,” Lisa sings, “Lucinda you're still around, Gotta be so hard to wear that crown.” The song has a swampy beat with a Louisiana fee, driving and forceful.

Like Lucinda Williams, Lisa is from rural America. She grew up one of eight children on a farm in upstate New York. Her father died when she was young and “Last Gift” is a song of loss and longing, about her father's priceless last gift, a gentle stroke of her hair.

Lisa recruited some DC-area all-stars players for her album, including former band mate guitarist Mike Woods (Honky Tonk Confidential, The Fabulettes), DC folk hero (and Grammy winner) Al Petteway on guitar, Ira Gitlin on banjo, jazz great Davey Yarborough on sax, Robbie Magruder on drums, and her own son Justin Mathews, who is a young jazz guitarist in NYC, as well as other fine DC musicians such as Benjie Porecki, Brian Simms, Jay Britton, and John Nazdin.

Ira Gitlin’s banjo dominates “Wendy’s Song,” or “Green River Gary,” a spooky tune about Gary Leon Ridgway, the Seattle- area serial killer. It’s from the point of view of the first of his 48 victims, who asks him how he felt when he killed,

“How did it feel with your hands on the necks.

Did you kill us before or after the sex?

We don’t remember if we fought or we cried.

God only knows how we felt when we died.”

The banjo and mournful cello are the musical drivers of this song, accompanied by an eerie chorus of ghosts.

“The Letter,” which begins with Lisa and a lone guitar, is about the suicide letter a Japanese woman writes, asking for forgiveness. The song, like many on the CD, is based on truth. Akiro Nishihira borrowed some money from a Japanese gang and when she couldn't pay the money back, she squatted on a train track with her husband and brother, letting the train bear down on and kill them. The lilting, melancholy lyrics go, “‘Please forgive me truly,’ said the letter. ‘I cannot apologize enough.’” The letter continues, “‘How strange these words upon the pretty paper. I ask for your forgiveness with my death.’”

“Preachers and Slaves” is a send-up of the 1911 “Joe Hill” IWW (Wobblies) union song, "The Preacher and the Slave," which itself was a cynical parody of the hymn "Sweet Bye and Bye.” The latter tune mocks the Salvation Army for its hypocrisy in being more interested in feeding itself than the poor. In “Preachers and Slaves,” Lisa takes a turn at middle class Americans who praise farmers (i.e. Farm Aid) but whose knowledge of the “working folk” comes from the movie screen: “You knew a farmer once, you said, a real upstanding guy. But somehow he just made you sad, you never wondered why.” Lisa bares her soul and tells us who she is when she sings:

“So you've sold out and so have I, we're really just the same
My pretty face has set my place, you play a rich man's game
But I'll console myself with thoughts that I'm my daddy's girl
A farmer's daughter honoring a working person's world.”

In the beautiful, slow, gospel-feeling “Friend in the Fall,” the singer wonders if she deserves the treatment she receives from her “friend” who abandoned her. The song starts out with sparse guitar, then is layered with a Hammond B3 and backing vocals until it becomes a large, sorrowful and soulful lament.

“Soup, Soap and Salvation” is a tongue-in-cheek look at the McDonalds (as in burgers and fries) charities, including more than $200 million that Ray Kroc’s widow, Joan, bequeathed to NPR. Although it was a “no-strings-attached” gift, NPR’s Susan Stamberg joked to reporters, “I’m changing my name to McStamberg.” The chorus goes, “Soup, soap and salvation will never make you fat. But here’s your new McBible, do you want fries with that? ….We’ll save your souls with a cheeseburger and a cold McFlurry shake.”

“The Shore,” dedicated to Lisa’s mother, is a tear-drenched goodbye from one woman to another. Lisa sings,

“Asleep, I let you drift away

I know the boat was there, that you couldn’t stay

In slumber I was lost

The river then, you surely crossed

And alone, you left me, on the shore”

“Someone” is a jazzy love note to an old friend (or, possibly, old flame), who is worth remembering, wistfully, with no regrets. Benjie Porecki’s piano transports the listener into a dark, smoky jazz bar, and the effect is lovely.

“Everywoman’s Blues,” while bowing to the great Billie Holiday, is a paean about women who speak their own minds, even if they can’t do it as well as others. Lisa pokes fun at herself with the chorus, “Singing the blues, hey yeah I’m singing the blues. Now Billie sang ‘em better, but we share the same views, and I’m just another white girl, singing the blues.

Lisa’s mother’s only instruction for her own funeral was that “Sweet Bye and Bye” be sung. Lisa writes, “Somehow, that corny old hymn doesn’t sound so corny any more.” Lisa’s son Justin Mathews ends the CD with a haunting solo guitar piece based on the tune. It doesn’t get any less corny than that. -- DQ

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Jack Johnson

Sleep Through the Static


Pro surfer, film maker and musician Jack Johnson now comes out with his fifth album release, “Sleep Through the Static.” The Hawaiian singer moved away from his Honolulu base to record the new album in his solar-powered studio and house in Los Angeles, where his record label Bushfire Records is now headquartered. Although he belongs in the surfer/beach music genre, Johnson is definitely no beach boy. His music reaches out to the more karma loving, relaxed people most commonly found in
Australia, New Zealand and his home, America.

Having successfully created four albums, most of them multi-platinum, Johnson is most famous for his upbeat, lazy reggae songs. Most of these contain lyrics inspired by nature, and that theme is present on his albums “In Between Dreams’ and “Bushfire Fairy tales.’ His new disc introduces a more somber and dark tone. According to Johnson's website, “Sleep Through the Static” is intended to be a shake up of sorts.

Maturing as a person and an artist, Johnson expresses the modern fears and common realities that we all find, even in his laid-back home of Hawaii. The beginning of the album instantly sets the somber tone through the first two tracks, “All at Once” and the self-titled “Sleep through the Static.” Johnson sings, “Just cash in your blanks for
little toy tanks/Learn how to use them, then abuse them and choose them/Over conversations relationships are overrated” about the Iraq war. For many who believe that artists need to be more political, Johnson's song is definitely one of the better of the crowd.

Overall, the album portrays Jack Johnson's brilliance in creating up beat tunes such as “Hope.” Some reviewers of “Sleep through the static” believe that events in Johnson's family such as the death of his cousin and world events have inspired this darker change. However, for people new to the musical styles of such albums as “on and on,” Johnson's new style has barely departed from those in his previous albums.

The CD is the first album recorded for a mainstream audience that is recorded wholly with solar power. Johnson is one of the leading musicians covering environmental issues in songs and documentaries about pollution in Hawaii. Along with this “Sleep through the Static” is an album where life and all its tests and tribulations has helped to create another album with so much potential to go platinum again. --AW

Best songs of the Album:

All at Once - (3/5) Expresses feelings of loss, and creation perhaps of a family

Sleep through the Static - (5/5) Great Reggae beat, about the Iraq war and the Bush administration.
Hope - (5/5) About death: “Your reflection is a blur/out of focus”
Angel - (3/5) About Jack Johnson's love
If I Had Eyes - (5/5) About relationships

Losing Keys- (5/5) About care and loss

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Dutch Cousins

Traveling Songs


Rock band Dutch Cousins, from the suburbs of DC, formed in 2003 and played its first show in 2004. The band’s self-released full-length LP, “Traveling Songs,” is available via itunes and on the internet. Since 2004, the band, headed by singer Tom Karpf, went through several guitarists after original guitarist Dan Hughes left the group. “Traveling Songs” contains tunes recorded in drummer Barry Blankenship’s basement as well as tracks recorded at Chicken Coop Studios, in rural Howard County, MD.


Dutch Cousins is a group which definitely has done its homework. The band sounds like a cocktail of Tom Petty, James Taylor, Weezer and REM. On this flagship album, the first track, “All That I Can Do” has vocals reminiscent of Bob Dylan and choppy riffs like Bruce Springsteen. Living life in such a depressing time, the songs hit hot issues, such as in “Down at the Top of the World.” The album was recorded in the rolling farms of Maryland and the bucolic life might have affect the recordings; there is a real country traveling beat in the songs “Slowburn,” with the lyrics, “Onward and onward the twist in the light, its all coming back to me now.” For a band that has only recorded one album, the song ‘Never Loved Anyone’ ends so perfectly that it sounds like something REM could have recorded. --AW

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Pete and the Pirates

Little Death

In the British music scene, things over time have become very confusing. In the haze of rave and punk music called “New Rave,” original rock bands, such as those spawned by The Beatles during their “Hamburg” era or The Rolling Stones’ “Richmond pub playing” era, manage to thrive. Pete and the Pirates are one of these bands. Their debut album, “Little Death,” has all of the clap along harmonies and twangy guitars to please the indie lover to his or her heart’s content.

With simple melodies and lyrics, P&TP could almost prove that you don’t need a complicated knowledge of keys, scales and chord progressions to make great songs. What Pete and the Pirates excel at is making tunes which, once you download them, you listen to for more than 14 times. I’m talking about songs like “Mr Understanding,” “Come on Feet,” “Knots,” and “Lost In The Woods.” However, like all simple bands, their debut album splits in sections of excellent dance about songs to acoustic songs which Simon Cowell would dub ‘Boring and Forgettable.” Even so, you shouldn’t lose faith in this band’s debut album. Having toured excessively over Europe and America , this band have a positive future ahead of them, if they learn from their mistakes. --AW


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The Wombats

A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation


One of the things that made The Beatles famous in the 1960s were their jokey wooh’s, and continuous “yeah yeah yeahs” in songs like “She Loves You” and “With Love From Me to You.” The songs helped them to shape out a career, with crying screaming girls following them where ever they went. In today’s ever serious society where the news constantly shows terrorism, inflation and recession, much music has also taken on a very serious and depressed state. However, a group of three mates from Liverpool mostly known as The Wombats have created a fun-loving genre of rock which brings the non sensual lobotomy back to the dance floor.

The wombats debut album, called “A Guide To Love, Loss and Desperation” from the very start shows a uniqueness which has been part of the UK consciousness since John, Paul, George and Ringo. Apart from the band’s scouse (Translation: person from Liverpool) brilliance, the debut has no real difference between each song. However, in these reporter’s eyes, the drum rolls and great guitar playing and hand clapping of Matthew, Dan and Tord are all simply amazing.

From the beginning of the album, it becomes very difficult to forget the great repetitive lines of “This is No Bridget Jones” on “Kill The Director,” and the hook lines of Christmas has come early’ on “Moving To New York.” Even if other critics put the Wombats off as repetitive pop rock, they certainly now how to make great music. Throughout the album you’ll find hits such as “Lets all Dance to Joy Division,” with its funky punk tribute to the old club bands such as New Order, and to times when disco was played on the Hacienda dance floor. But with The Wombats, what is most interesting about the album is their first single, “Back Fire At The Disco.”

Matthew, Dan and Tord have done a good job, but it is still only a “halfway there” album. Even so, they are the best thing to come out of Liverpool since The Beatles. It is to be hoped that they will learn from their touring and album-making experience and come out with a new album that will bring us back to burning leather on the dance floor once more. --AW

7/10

Songs To Download:

Kill the director

Moving To New York

Lets Dance To Joy Division



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Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

People who first get into music might define the genre of Indie rock through groups such as Block Party, Pulp, The Verve and The Libertines. However, if you look at the word, “Indie” means independent, and most of these groups are famous on mainstream labels and radio stations. Vampire Weekend, in my eyes, are a perfect example of what an Indie band should be and sound like.

In today’s ever evolving technological world, up coming bands are getting their music out to the masses through blog sites, websites and sites such as Limewire. Vampire Weekend are no exception, promoting themelves on their websites on African pop and modern music. The group became a band of choice on New York’s east side in 2007 due to their new fusion music genre called “Upper West Side Soweto”. Vampire Weekend’s New York City flavor is very different compared to other NYC groups such as The Strokes or The Velvet Underground.

Their songs “Mansard Roof,” “Oxford Comma,” and “A-Punk” are so unique, that they sound like an acid trip while reading or watching a Jane Austin book or movie than listening to a record. These images are evoked through the simple interaction between violins, cellos and guitars which gives the songs an early nineteenth century feel. Lyrically, its easy to tell what their academic backgrounds are. “Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma? I've seen those English dramas too, They're cruel.”

What excites me most about VW is their interest and use of African percussion and rhythm. The song “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” evokes the styles of Paul Simon’s “Graceland.” The group’s ability to do things so uniquely has meant taking huge risks musically by using such international sounds on songs like “Bryn.” This may be considered “sad” by the harder blues scale rock groups. However, Vampire Weekend have an affinity for fusion music and its romanticism which would make such artists as Sting and John Lennon proud to hear.

If trend-setting applies to the latest shoes, shirts or sunglasses, then Vampire Weekend will definitely cause ripples in the dark looming waters of the American and English music industries. So do take a look at this great debut, from a band which will be heard a lot about this year. --AW

Songs to Download:

A-Punk

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

M79

Mansard Roof

Bryn


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Lisa Ann Wright's first cd, "Sweet Bye & Bye" reminds me why I like to spend so much time exploring the independent music scene. Now and then you find a gem: songs you just want to keep for yourself, but you know you have to share. Listed here as folk, Lisa's music, first and foremost, should not be confined to any genre. The Blues, Jazz, and Country all share center stage. Her vocals are sweet and inviting, her lyrics thoughtful, and her melodies and arrangements often have a playful quality.

Geff King's energetic arrangement of "Lucinda" gives the abum its opening punch, and may well be--IMHO--the best track. "Wendy's Song" chillingly tells the tale of the Green River killer Gary Ridgway, through the voice of his first victim, Wendy Coffield. The song highlight's Wright's lyrical storytelling ability and invites you to listen again and again. "Someone"has a sultry, smoky jazz flavor, and "Everywoman's Blues" is just pure fun.

The CD is something of a family affair, Wright's son, Justin Mathews, appears throughout the album and co-authored "Preachers and Slaves" with his mother. Unlike a lot of independent music, you will want to keep these songs and play them repeatedly...but be sure to share them with your friends and family. You'll be glad you did.

"We all relate to these songs, and Lisa sings hers just right."

"Lisa hauls off and give’em hell by speaking plain truth in both her music and her blog.”

"I've heard lots of people sing Joe Hill songs and songs about Joe Hill, but 'Preachers and Slaves' is certainly one of the best and most energetic additions to that tradition."

...REVIEWS ALSO POSTED ON HOMEPAGE...

I finally got to hear your CD. . . Its great!.. I see what you mean "like Lucinda!" . . . Love the Cajun twang to it. Very heart- warming songs. . great voice, and the backups are fabulous. . . Best of luck!!

Well, it’s always good to get a song reviewed, even when it’s on someone else’s album! A song I wrote with Diana Quinn, "A Girl Named Dick", is on Honky Tonk Confidential’s “Road Kill Stew and Other News”, ( with newsman Bob Scheiffer having penned lyrics on four of the tracks!)
"... snarky lyrics for songs like I Wish You Were From Texas and 'A Girl Named Dick'."

Hear Diana singing A Girl Named Dick
Buy the whole song! Costs less than a bag a pork rinds!

The Washington Post also singled out “A Girl Named Dick”. (I claim the "snarky" and Diana can claim the "clever". She’s nicer than me!!)

"...Much of the writing is clever (the title track and "A Girl Named Dick," for starters)..."