Carolyn Wonderland
Miss Understood
Bismeaux CD9591
I wonder if Carolyn Wonderland ever resents the Janis Joplin comparisons? You can’t help but make them – the raspy, whiskey aged voice, the uninhibited stage presence, the peace and love attitude. What does that make you think of? Uh huh – thought so.
Miss Understood, Wonderland’s new release, is many things. It’s 60’s Summer-of-Love hippie music - think Joplin/Hendrix. (The analogy in not my imagination – in the photo on the back of the CD she’s wearing a peace symbol necklace and a beat up and painted old army jacket, and inside the booklet she’s actually giving the peace sign.) It’s Austin on a summer night barefoot in Zilker Park with a hundred other people grooving to a great live band. It’s a singer/songwriter exposing her vulnerabilities for the entire world to hear. But it’s not blues.
Even the track “Bad Girl Blues” is not blues. There are some blues undertones – like the blues slipped quietly in the back door during the recording sessions and stood silently in the corner – giving off a faint vibe, but never actively influencing the proceedings. There’s heartache and blues in the timbre of her voice, I’ll give you that. This woman knows the blues in her soul. But Rock and Country and Americana came loudly in the front door and took over this CD. I’m not saying that’s bad or good – it just is.
It’s a brash, bold uncompromising recording, masterfully produced by Asleep at the Wheel kingpin Ray Benson. And you can’t mistake the Austin sound to it – hard to define in words, unmistakable in sound.
Caroline herself is a kind of musical Renaissance woman. Impressively she wrote or co-wrote seven of the 12 tracks. She not only sings them all, but also plays lap steel, electric and acoustic guitars trumpet, piano and mandolin. In addition to the keyboardist from her own band, Cole El-Saleh, the CD features musical contributions from Ray Benson (guitar), Guy Forsyth (harmonica), Jon Blondell (bass), Barry “Frosty” Smith (drums) and Cindy Cashdollar (dobro), to name but a few.
MissUnderstood is Caroline Wonderland’s 7th CD, but I doubt she’s ever misunderstood by anyone. She’s a woman with a mission, and she knows what she wants in the studio and how to get it. If hippie chick rock and country is your thing, you should get Miss Understood too.
- Blue Lisa -
Southwest Blues CD Review - July 2008
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