Reviews
Leslie Waugh Album: Night Bloom
Label: Smallz
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.lesliekrafka.com
Now trading under her remarried name, based in Houston, this, featuring Asleep At The Wheel's Dennis Ludiker: on guitars, fiddle, mandolin and harmonium, Trevor Nealon from Band Of Heathens on keys and Lloyd Maines on pedal steel and dobro, is her third album, the first (a trilogy of EPs notwithstanding) since 2014 and, as might be expected much relates to divorce and self-reinvention, opening with swaggering rocker 'Black Cadillac' about a woman giving her trophy wife marriage the finger and heading off for freedom down the highway with her guitars and stolen number plates leaving a blow up doll in her place. Jangly guitars, steady drums and tumbling chords drive the hard luck and heartbreak 'Troubles On My Mind', this though in a more defeatist frame of mind ("If I could turn back the hands of time and had one more chance with you/It'd probably be a second-rate romance or a one-night rendezvous… It's easier to be cruel to myself than to be kind").
A lazing barroom sway with Mains on steel and Mike Stinson duetting, 'Pay Attention" sounds a warning note to both sides keep an eye on your marriage and ensure you're not taking it for granted ("Take time to listen when he needs an ear/You gotta listen, let me be clear/He needs a friend as much as a lover … Give her flowers for no reason at all/You don't need a reason to give her a call/Finding love isn't the end of the mission/Keepin' her happy should be your ambition").
Namechecking 'The Grapes of Wrath', written during Covid, an organ-backed jogging rhythm with fiddle and mandolin 'To Be Poor' is basically what it says on the tin and finding the resilience to survive ("Swallowed my tears, swallowed my pride/Every day's a struggle to survive/I've got family in Ohio/Time to bundle up my kids and go… But I promise we will stay afloat/If it floods I'll build a boat").
A mid-tempo backwoods floor country shuffle, 'Let Me Be Me" is about self-fulfilment and not needing a man to define you ("I have friends who think it's crazy/That I dine at a table for one/And I sleep alone in my great big bed…They say girl, you don't get it… How ya gonna ever find a man/Layin' around in your pajamas all day/I said, I like my peace and quiet/I put my stuff where I please/And if it makes me happy to live alone/Why can't you just let me be").
Again with Appalachian and Dolly flavours to its fiddle and pizzicato mandolin, 'Unbroken Thread' is about seeing like as a continuous journey ("When I came to an end I tied another thread/The thread grew longer, and it grew stronger/'Til there was no sign of an end/It's my journey, an unwritten journal in one unbroken thread") with "23,000 yesterdays, there for the taking, mine for the making".
Another jaunty fiddle and dobro number with a catchy singalong refrain, 'I'm Your Friend' is a no strings attached song about being there when needed ("If you're lost and need direction/You're a ship without a wheel/I will be your true north/I will right your keel") while, in contrast, the swaggery, rockier-veined 'Trigger' is about social media shaming by others when you screw up in public ("Instead of compassion, they're draggin' me through the mud/I said I was sorry/They want it signed in blood/They're all itchin' to point their finger in my face/Those son's a bitches need") while she's "the kind of person who leave the rocks out on the road" rather than cast the first stone.
Widening the social commentary perspective, picked on acoustic with Ludiker on guitar and harmonium, 'Stilstown" relates the poignant smalltown story of a third-generation female farmer anchored to a disappearing way of life but, her brother passed, her sister a teacher, shouldered with the burden of carrying on the legacy even if there's nothing left to save ("Stilstown only grows weeds and graves").
Mark Gonzales on trombone complementing piano, it ends with the wryly witty New Orleansy sway of 'Dependably Undependable', the buttoned-up, slave to routine singer finding the yin to her yang in a "reliably unreliable" friend or lover ("You never have any cash/You never have your own stash/It's a given that you'll be late/Don't always pull your weight") but who takes her out of the sensible zone ("you're a rebel, you're a rogue/Like dynamite about to explode/I'll light your fuse then me and you/Will have a damn good time").
Night blooms are flowers that open their petals and release their scents only in the evening. Breathe these in, they're intoxicating.
Mike Davies
| Previous | Next |
|---|---|
| Mama's Broke: Reunion | Kate Waters: Some Comfort |
Recent Reviews
- Maria Mihailik:Maria Mihailik
- Mama's Broke:Reunion
- Leslie Waugh:Night Bloom
- Kate Waters:Some Comfort
- Faris Ishaq:Jasad
- The Kennedys:Smoketree
- Nic Norton and Alice Morell:The Stone Tape
- M G Boulter & Jenny Sturgeon:Wild Convenor
- Christian Parker, Patrick Cleary and Earl Poole Ball:American Cosmic Revival Vol 2: Miles From Nowhere
- Around About Dusk:Sweet Old Fables
Uncommon Cowboy
Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.