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A
longtime figure on the women’s music scene, with more than
thirty years in the music business, Tret Fure has
returned with Anytime Anywhere (Tomboygirl). On the lightly
Latin-tinged opening title track, Fure sings about physical attraction
in light of maintaining fidelity and then shifts her focus to urban
pastures on folk-pop of “When The Wind Blows.” Not surprisingly,
politics and current event find their way into her music and is
especially effective on “Eyes of God” and “All
Things Come Apart.” Fure also has a gift for making the personal
universal, whether she’s singing about love (“Drivin’,”
“Home To You”) or growing old gracefully (“Grace”).
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Fans
of Melissa Ferrick are almost guaranteed to find something
to like about Chris Pureka and her album
Driving North (chrispureka.com).
With a guitar style similar to Ferrick’s, Pureka alternately
gives the instrument an unrelenting workout and treats it
with loving kindness. Pureka came to my attention on a wave
of hype, and while I may not be as enthused about her as others
are, I did find things to admire about her work, including
the songs “3 A.M.,” “Porch Songs,”
“After All” and “Cynical.”
Followers
of queer female acoustic guitar-toting singer/songwriter may
also want to take a listen to Denise Dill,
who has a new self-titled album out (denisedill.com).
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Bicoastal
country-soul singer/songwriter Sean Wiggins has
returned with her new album “Everyday Life” (Wigmeister).
In possession of a set of pipes that you don’t hear everyday,
Wiggins takes her torch and twang seriously. Working with a band
that brings her pride and pleasure, Wiggins has rerecorded earlier
tunes such as “Lucky In Love,” “Mercury In Retrograde”
“You On My Mind” “Before I Fall” and “Lazy
Susan,” for example, so that her fans could hear them realized
in such a fashion.
Where
most of the women mentioned above have followed the folk model
of The Chicago & New Haven Women’s Liberation Band,
Mara Levi has chosen another path. While the
“sports” motif of the cover (I know, I know, don’t
judge a book or a CD for that matter) for Life’s
A Ball (Fancy) initially put me off, the perfect pop
music inside spoke to me instantly. First of all, Levi’s
voice is a powerful tool, her musicianship is above par, and her
songwriting gifts are considerable. A combination such as that
has resulted in some of the most original and admirable songs
I’ve in a long time. Standouts include “In My Head”
(an attention getter), “Hey Mister” (a multi-faceted
song that has hit written all over it), “So Sorry”
(a dramatic, gear-shifting tearjerker), “Without Alarm”
(a straight-ahead rocker), “No Difference” (a heartbreaking
ballad complete with horns and strings), “La Di Dee Da”
(a drinking and swaying song), “Kids In The Cosmos”
(a modern folk tune that would make The Chicago & New Haven
Women’s Liberation Band proud), and “Sweet Misery”
(a gorgeous piano and vocal number reminiscent of Laura Nyro).
Musical contortionist and self-described “anarcho-feminist
and cabaret-punk pop star” Athena Reich (athenareich.com)
serves up a delightful buffet of bravado and bliss on Stranger
Things Have Happened. Theatrical and thrilling, Reich hams
it up like a natural born drama queen, but knows how to keep it
in check, as is clear from opening track “The Ballad of Chicken
Shower.” Reich also has a rough and tumble rocker persona
which she whips out on “Contra*Dick*Tions” and “Anarchy.”
In terms of sheer musical variety and enthusiastic performance,
Reich rules.
Jazz
continues to be a welcoming place for lesbians with Dena
DeRose settling in alongside Lea
DeLaria, Patricia Barber
and others. But DeRose’s vocals, and her keyboard work,
on A Walk In The Park (MaxJazz) aren’t the
only things that allow her to stand out from the crowd.
Sure, her renditions of Jolsons “All My Love,”
Berlin’s “How Deep Is The Ocean,” Lennon’s
“Imagine,” and Porter’s “I Concentrate
On You,” not only indicate impeccable taste in cover
tunes but also her ability to transform them into her own
songs. |
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DeRose
also writes her own songs and numbers such as “Home (With
You),” “In The Glow Of The Moon,” and “A
Walk In The Park (With James),” invite listeners to stroll
with her.
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