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...Capitol-City A&E Zine...

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Folk-New / Age / Spiritual / Etc. Music Reviews

A Trip Down Eliza Gilkyson?s Redemption Road
by India Taylor

Like the never-captured Phoenix, Eliza Gilkyson has escaped the nets of definition again. Not to be typecast as a New Age/folk artist, she has just unveiled her most modern self-sculpture -- her new CD, Redemption Road. Like her first album, Pilgrims, the recent release still reflects her spiritual values, but instead of consuming the focus this time, they occur like occasional shooting stars against the backdrop of very human love stories. And unlike her first effort?s simple but sparkling guitar and/or keyboard productions, Redemption Road welcomes surprise guest instruments with various ethnic signatures.

The lyrical heart of this more sophisticated song collection is Gilkyson?s contemplation of a worthy human challenge -- trying to sustain loving romances. In other words, this is one of those treasured, rare artistic dissertations known as a concept album. Its mood is set in "Pools of Eden," song number one. Co-written with boyfriend Mark Andes (former bass-player for Heart), the song depicts the sad mystery of an ill-fated love?s ecstatic birth and painfully parallel disintegration. A lone violin weeps the solo. Yet a transcendent moment, springing from that lost Eden, occurs on the spiritual level: "The soul belongs to no one, and some things are never known." And so from the first song, Redemption Road already has hinted, with this budding of wisdom, that the album has a higher theme than romance and broken hearts.

"Don?t close your eyes and breathe with the soft wind, unless you want me now" – this line makes you do exactly that. "Unless You Want Me" is a warning to a would-be lover not to make a move unless he is serious, but, as if I am her, as if I am there, Gilkyson makes me feel the longing for love conflicting with the "survival instinct." The music is as captivating as the lyric, with a romantic Latin rhythm that belies the words of caution.

"Our Time" has an only half-real, lost and dreamlike feel. It describes the singer?s optimism that the "personal growth" phenomenon may one day take root and even blossom in a man she loves, whom she describes, however, as a "foolish grown man child running wild and so unthinking. Try to be a man, to make a stand on sand that?s sinking." The vocal is melodic, but a dark, dissonant chord is thrown in occasionally to spell a doomed relationship, despite her powerful, trancelike hope. The drums are so hypnotic and steady that I had to check the credits to see if this were a drum machine, but no – two actual percussionists did the playing. In the chorus, Eliza croons with a falsetto ability I?d never heard her display before. There is an endorphin-stimulating guitar solo by Tony Gilkyson (perhaps suggestive of hypnotic hope?), with a Dire Straits-like, clean touch.

One song, "Prayer 2000," is a meditation on thankfulness -- for many things, including "ponies running wild" and for the dawn -- but also for her "darkest years, all the sorrow that made me, and the beauty that saved me." Here, she begins to really illustrate what redemption means, that you "get soul" from suffering. (Aside: For me, a redeeming discovery was that the enchanted, resonant instrumental solo in this song was played not by a synthesizer but by . . . an accordian?! You?ll have to hear this to believe it.)

And I must mention the song "Road Not Taken," which is about passing up an opportunity for romance with someone who is a great temptation, lovable and magnetic, but who, the song implies, already belongs to someone else ("passion traded for a contract?s security.") If you have ever fallen in love with such a character and decided to resist getting involved with him/her, you will appreciate the inner conflict this song describes, the struggle to let go once and for all, of what never happened. "Turn from me, off down the trail where the wild things run." I thank her for acknowledging such a seldom acknowledged and deeply personal, but precious, strength-affirming experience.

Because of her many dimensions, Gilkyson can hardly be classified as a folk artist or New Age artist any longer, or if so, only by expanded definition. On Redemption Road, she shows us more of herself than ever, a braver, truer picture of a heart. The old terms of separation such as "genre" and "ethnicity" almost start to feel obsolete, yet are revisited in her tunes when appropriate, like time-honored myths. Although she doesn?t claim to have the final solution for finding the lost Eden that haunts her writing, I gather that she will still seek to love and understand; and that while there is no returning to the lost paradise, Eliza Gilkyson believes we can find a more mature kind of Eden by keeping our hearts and minds open about the journey. Near the end of the CD, she sings of a "River of Gold" she is searching for desperately, afraid she?ll run out of time to find it ("the night is falling.") Perhaps it is because she shares the quest with us that the songs on this little round disk are redeeming examples of writing "outside the box."

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Ana Egge

River Under The Road

Lazy S.O.B. Records.

SXSW '97 was the first time I heard Ana Egge, with Linda Lozano and Kim Miller as part of The Songwriting Trio playing for "Mike's Feedback Magazine's" annual musicians party at Steamboat. At the time I didn't know which lovely voice was Egge's, but I do now... and so will a lot more people with the release of her debut album River Under The Road. The long list of Austin heavy-hitters contributing to this project makes it impossible to ignore (not that you'd want to!). The collective talents of David Sanger, Danny Barnes, Rich Brotherton, Mary Cutrufello, Marvin Dykhuis, Paul Glasse, Steve James, Sarah Brown, Cindy Cashdollar, and others, create a richly saturated tapestry, upon which Egge weaves her silken lyrical threads into picture words.

Twenty year-old Ana has an older, wiser soul peeking out... illuminating her descension into an elusive world inhabited by endless excuses for human frailties and senseless acts of desperate courage. Discovering early in life that words and music were balm for a painful heart, Egge courageously seeks out cures and writes her own prescriptions for peace of soul. The title track, "River Under The Road" is the undisputed jewel of the album. Co-written with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Sarah Brown, this song demonstrates the potential wild woman that lurks within her soul. My personal favorites include the one about the pathetic rock-a-bye cocaine bitch, who thinks she's still the "Fairest Of Them All." I was just blown away by the dreamy "Souls Out Sailing," which was produced by Egge and Brown. You can definately feel a woman's touch here. It's going to be a joy watching Ana's star ascend.

- Sharon Jones-LeFlore

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My, My, My

Interesting Folk Music

Thistledomm Records

My, My, My is an interesting collection of acoustic songs reminiscent of Kerrville: folk, blues, ballads and country/bluegrass. For the most part, it's just standard camp-fire fare, but a few stand-out jewels give us a glimpse of Dixie Taylor's ability to express complex emotions with simple word pictures. The album opens with her downhome "Blueberry Pie" which almost made me cry. She dusted off my childhood memories as she described my own Kentucky "Mamm Ma" perfectly; right down to dishin' up the bacon, eggs and grits. In true southern-style, good home cookin' equals good home lovin'. Her second power cut "Hard Life (Red Beans)" paints the harshness faced by poor women left behind with the dirt floors and the kids to struggle and survive. Her sense of humor surfaces with a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Rosanne, "Rosie...you're my domestic goddess...with more balls than any man..." Hilarious stuff. "Seven Dollars" depicts the dying dreams of a poor mother struggling to feed her children and the uncaring system that offers her therapy, but no hard currency. The final cut is a torch song called "You Still Turn Me On" that has definite hit appealæfor the right female vocals. Taylor should really market that one...

- Sharon Jones-LeFlore

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Peter Keane-Walkin' Around Flying Fish (Rounder FF652)

Peter Keane is young folkish singer/songwriter with an appealingly gentle touch, but with an intense dedication to acoustic blues. The combination of the two extremes works beautifully as he sings his stories in the folk tradition. Even his voice has a pretty and clean sound with just enough raspy edge to pull off a Mississippi John Hurt song admirably with all the appropriate, well, blues. It's folks like Hurt, Dave Van Ronk, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott who have had the most obvious influence on this young practitioner. Originally from Cincinnati, Keane spent some years doing folk covers in the Cambridge, Massachusetts coffeehouse circuit before moving into the thriving Austin, Texas scene where he now is becoming a writer of songs which maintain the depth and simple beauty of those brought about by the genre's founders. "Walkin' Around," "You Haunt My Dreams," and "New Orleans" all sound as though they could have been written## at least half a century ago; in fact, "Louisiana Special" sort of was, being an updated variation of "Orange Blossom Special." Interestingly, the original most faithful to traditional blues storytelling is a story of Mississippi John Hurt himself. Keane found in the bluesman's history that his first ever trip out of the South and into New York City was for recording sessions at Christmastime, 1928. "Poor Jessie" is Keane's touching speculation about Mrs. Hurt's feelings about this bittersweet slice of thei#¡r lives ("There's a train to New York City, it won't be there to stay, Jessie's still up waiting a thousand miles away...Poor Jessie, please, Jessie, don't curse your man out loud.") Among the covers are a duet with the rugged-voiced Bill Morissey on Eric Von Schmidt's "Blow Whistle Blow," and a warmly melodic "I Want You," which features Lyle Lovett's cellist John Hagen, on Dylan's classic. Most of the album has minimal accompaniment, with Austin's finest session players filling the all-acoustic holes (Champ Hood, David Heath, and Paul Pearcy). This attentive student of folk and blues is living proof that age, color, and region have no bearing on a singer/songwriter's ability to get it right.

by Rush Evans

- Laurie Freelove
(Chocolate Records 6909-CD)

The more I listen to this CD, the more it grows on me. Laurie is gifted with a beautiful voice, and she can very easily go from a mere whisper to a full alto back to a gentle tone without sounding forced. Her voice is rich in texture and warmth, and it shines all throughout the different cuts. Laurie's talent both as a gifted musician and as an intelligent singer/songwriter is very evident. She is not afraid of sharing her experiences and feelings with her audience and one gets the feeling of actually looking right into her soul. The fact that the CD is a compilation of live broadcast recordings made between 1990 and 1996 is an added bonus, since the audience gets treated to some beautiful renditions of both old and new songs. I was lucky enough to be on the KLBJ studios the night she played "Dear Prudence" to a live audience. Listening to this cut again, brings a lot of memories, and as a Beatle fan, it is one of my favorite. Some of the other song which I find very appealing are "The Nineline", which you will soon find yourself humming to; "The Moon In Our Hearts" a song full of beautiful harmonies, where Laurie and Gemma Cochran (on supporting vocals), complement each other's voices; and "The Invisible Invisible." a very powerful song. The CD is impeccable, and it is hard to believe that the recordings come from different broadcasts. This is a CD who needs to be added to your collection. Make sure to see Laurie Freelove during SXSW at Ruta Maya on March 14 at 11pm, and look for an in depth interview on our next issue.

by Laura Rojo