It's been a busy couple of weeks here at the Indie Corral. Thanks in part to a fresh announcement on the Indiegrrl list, my CD pile is thick with submissions from female artists, hence the female face of this week's Round-Up.
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Susan Kane, So Long
This lovely set of hummable country-folk, beautifully produced by Billy Masters (Suzanne Vega's guitarist), has been getting some airplay on prestigious folk programs, and deservedly so. Kane has a sweetly unassuming but clear and sure voice, a good command of American idioms from country-western to blues to coffeehouse folk, a knack for homespun melodies, and an ace collaborator in Masters, whose guitar work and production nests the songs perfectly.
Kane sings folk with a country-singer's voice, merging the pure beauty of an Erica Smith with the worldliness of a Joni Mitchell. As with Linda Nuñez (see below), if you like this style of music, you will probably enjoy this strong album through and through.
I have one quibble. Although lyrics, as a consequence of their dependence on a musical setting, generally sound better sung than they read upon the page, Kane's, curiously, go the opposite way. The simple, rather formal beauty of the song structures and melodies seem to contrast with the natural, tumbling quality of the storytelling, resulting - to this ear, anyway - in moments of diminished artfulness.
That aside, this is a fine disc worthy of a place on your folk shelf. Kane and Masters are also a pleasure to hear live, as I learned at a recent show at NYC's Rockwood Music Hall.
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Nuñez, Cry Mercy
Linda Nuñez and her band make unabashed power-rock. Inspired as much by 70's icons Pat Benatar and Heart as by 90's alternative bands like Live and Soundgarden, Nuñez sings in an unstoppable belt that's very refreshing in this age of little-girl voices. And it's not just her singing style and ballsy harmonies that evoke 70's arena rock, it's also her dramatic, sometimes deliciously over-the-top songwriting. A touch of Latin flavor (as in "Havana"), a soft underbelly ("Either Way") and a proud but not heavy-handed gay identification give this artist plenty of crossover juice, too.
The best songs are up front: "Cry Mercy" is a monster jam, and it's hard to get the chorus of "Love In Pieces" out of your head once you've heard it. "Yea" is a headbanger's delight that Beavis and Butthead would surely have labeled cool, and "That's Where I Went Wrong" is a solid power-pop anthem. The songs on the second half of the CD have less hit potential, but the power never lets up, and if you like one Nuñez song, you'll probably like the whole album. It has depth, and it rocks: two for two in my book.
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