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Paula Fong Paula Fong
Album: A Bird On The Wing
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: https://www.paulafong.com

Based in Los Angeles, following on from her 2024 EP, 'Chestnut Mare', Fong's debut comes with a stylistically varied collection that embraces bluegrass, jazz tints and folk but is ultimately rooted in an Americana bedrock. Supported by an array of musicians who include, primarily, multi-instrumentalist Phill Glenn, Justin Siclair, dobro and pedal steel player Drew Taubenfeld and banjo man Ellery Marshall, it kicks off with dobro-coloured mid-tempo warbled ballad 'River Run', the river symbolic of how troubles can be carried way allowing you to move on ("Lift my heaviness and lead me down the channel/Ease the pain to which I've clung and when the new day is come/We'll be far away from here").

'Up & Out' rides a Johnny Cash chug with barroom piano, organ, double bass and skittering drums in a remarkably upbeat number about gradually losing yourself ("I fear one day this old body won't be naught but skin and bones/These blessed strong convictions hang like all my loosened clothes…and every time the darkness comes/There's less of me… When I look in the mirror and don't like anything in sight/My soul's in need of shaking up to help me see the light") balanced with a determination to escape the funk she's in and make the most of everything ("I wanna hop high and laugh and shout/Michael throw me on your shoulder/Teach me what this life's about").

Taken at a slow walking pace with rolling pedal steel and her voice soaring on the chorus, 'What Are We Running From' is more straightforward Emmylou-ish country about getting in the car and taking off down the highway to give you space to breathe and escape burdens and a broken heart ("I remember when it was just you and me going out for another ride…It's hard to quench a thirst drinkin' from a broken cup/When the emptiness is deep and wide/Oh what you gonna fill it up with?") as she sings "They say love ain't worth the giving if it ain't worth fighting for/Will you be there waiting for me when I walk back through the door?".

Keening fiddle and banjo colour 'Marianne ' which, alternating between slow and melancholic verses and the upbeat bluegrassy chorus, seems to have a mental health theme ("They took me downtown to a room without sound/And they told me it was good, would keep my feet on solid ground/But I couldn't stand the loss, the silence came at such a cost") and finding escape with a fellow patient ("They locked her up and kept her in/She said laugh it off my friend…So I grabbed her hand and ran…She's my one true north, we're gonna take a stand/Climb on up to the promised land/And when we get to the top, we're gonna shout it all out/Cause the whole damn world may be goin' to shit/Put your hand in my hand, ain't gonna walk through it alone").

It's appropriately followed by the slow-waling, pedal steel aching 'Peace Of Mind' which looks to break free of a toxic relationship ("I'm standing on the stairs starin' at my feet/Prayin' that they're too caught up to see/How I get tangled in the mess you make/Again my love ain't worth a thing") as she pleads "Devil woman get away from me/You're just spending all your time/Tearing down my peace of mind" and ends with the heartbreaking repeated line "if you can't make it right just make it pretty".

Taking a break from her own material, Sean Watkins and Abby Posner join on vocals for a banjo-dappled cover of Pete Seeger's 'Turn, Turn, Turn' that paints with bluegrass gospel colours, more melancholic than the version by The Byrds, but still ultimately hopeful.

Opening a capella in traditional finger-snapping work song style before interplay between fiddle and banjo lifts it up to front porch bluegrass, 'Pretty Red Bird' with its three instrumental breaks uses avian migration to sketch out the end of a relationship ("Little brown bird with an empty nest/Hold his memory now close to your breast/He's long long gone, no matter how you sing your song").

With fiddle, viola, cello, piano and banjo, the gently swaying 'Lessons On Listening; is a storysong about meeting a world weary music man and the support of a friendly ear when your heart and mind are troubled ("As a child my own voice was a stranger to me/And the loneliness grew to be all I could see/Til' the light from an open door drew me gently in…So if you wanna lay your burden down/Cast off the load you're carrying around/I'm here for you, I'll listen to you/Sometimes all you need is your voice to be heard").

Again with cello, viola, and fiddle, joined by Taubenfeld on Weisenborn, the beautiful five-minute title track is a mid-tempo piano ballad with an avian metaphor for hope as it explores the songwriting art and having the courage to let the song and the heart fly free. Fong's been likened to Karla Bonoff and you can certainly hear that influence here.

Shifting styles with a mournful sparse violin backing but largely unaccompanied, sung in French 'Sans Dire Je T'iaime' harks to the traditional Breton music Fong embraced during her time in France and speaks to longing to express your feelings when words are not enough. In ends, Posner on backing vocals with mandolin, fiddle and banjo, in jaunty manner with the whooping front porch good time 'Goodbyes' that puts a positive spin on that endings, whether through a break-up, death or a child leaving home, are just the start of new beginnings ("Goodbyes ain't ever easy/You grieve 'em till the grief is past/And the next time they come a callin'/Steel your heart child for the darkness cannot last").

Her EP saw her spread her wings, this sees her really take flight.

Mike Davies

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