Louisville Music News
By Kevin Gibson, 2007
All Grown Up and Still Twangy
I (Heart) Britney Spears (ear X-tacy)
Heidi Howe
EDITED
To see the whole thing, go to www.heidihowe.com
Louisville singer-songwriter Heidi Howe has gone in all sorts of directions since her first two releases, Nature of My Wrongs and A Real Piece of Work. She has delved into children's music, spiritual music and environmental awareness in her subsequent releases and has drawn quite a bit of praise for her efforts.
Her new release, I (Heart) Britney Spears, sees Howe returning to her early days of simply presenting songs about heartbreak and the foibles of society, except this time she does it without any help. Whereas in the past Tim Krekel and other guests have joined her in the studio to create lush, layered productions, this 13-song set is just little Heidi and her big red guitar. It's spare and charming, with Howe's uber-twangy vocals out front and center, no holds barred.
And her voice is the most apparent feature that sets Howe apart from other singer-songwriters. There's not a more distinctive, country-fried, fresh-from-the-Kentucky-hills voice in all of music. Seriously, Howe's voice makes Dolly Parton sound like a city slicker. (I hear some people say they don't like the shrill twang in her voice - me, I loved it from the first time I heard it.)
But my favorite aspect of Howe's music has always been her sense of humor. "If I Were a Man," from the aforementioned Work, is just fall-down funny while still being poignant. I (Heart) Britney Spears is populated with a few re-recorded retreads, but offers up a collection of new songs that only Howe could have written - and which seem to illustrate where she is right now as a person. Howe has always worn her heart on her guitar strap and that's exactly what she does with endearing aplomb on I (Heart) Britney Spears.
The album leads off with the title track, which is not an ode to or direct bashing of Spears but rather Howe's proclamation that she wants to be the kind of person who can love everyone equally, whether she thinks they are "an angel or a pain in the butt." The point here is that if she can legitimately say she loves Britney Spears, well, she can believe she's the kind of person she wants to be.
Among the many highlights here is "Down in Malibu," which is about the unrealistic expectations placed on females to, well, look just like a Barbie doll and the conflicting messages young girls receive while growing up. "My grandma told me/Girl, be anything you want to be/Then she gave me a doll that looked just like a beauty queen/She had pretty little pointy feet/And huge, perfect ... hair/You just knew a girl like Barbie don't own backup underwear."
"Everything But You" is disarming with its humorous look at forgetfulness mixed with the subplot of longing. She also turns in some sweetly sincere tunes like "Broke Back" (which apparently is a tribute to the film "Brokeback Mountain"), "The Last Thing," "Made in Korea (Song for Stinky Pete)" (which is about her son) and "All I Need," and also revisits classics from past albums such as the hilarious "Ex's Baggage" and the incredibly endearing and emotive "Haven't Met You Yet."
Instead of burdening herself with the expense and time commitment of a full-band studio album, Howe seems to be saying, "Here it is; this is just me." Maybe she doesn't have as much time or money to sink into her recordings at the moment, but she proves with this collection that she hasn't lost a step.
Learn more at www.heidihowe.com.
No Depression Magazine
By Barry Mazor , 2005
No Depression Magazine
Give a Hootenanny!
Heidi Howe
Now, you might think that a record's worth of slightly lesson- teaching songs about nature and the environment, with state arts council backing (even when the state?s Kentucky), and with some proceeds going to the Sierra Club and such, would be so officially Good For You that no living, breathing child in the right head could find anything engaging about it.
Wrong!
There's a relevant (and impossibly catchy) song actually called "Good For You" on Heidi Howe's record, which reminds us "It matters what you eat, it matters what you chew; it matters to your insides and the planet too"- to the sounds of dobros and kazoos.
There are fiddle and mandos and pots and pans that get banged too, in a variety of hard twang, country gospel blues and bluegrass styles. It's all pulled together by Howe's vocals, which come right from the deep end of the Kentucky Holler.
For lovers of country looking for records to bring to the little twangers in the household, this is a sweet find- not just stomachable to those les close to the very front end of that "1- 101" age range claimed in the title, but kind of a kick on its own terms. It can sit there next to that Farmer Jason record and the one with Robbie Fulks' "Godfrey", slighty more earnest perhaps, but awfully sweet and very country.
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