2007 WAMMIE Award Winner
Debut Album
LISA ANN WRIGHT
SWEET BYE & BYE Reviewed in "Sing Out!" Magazine
This is a very classy album. Lisa Ann Wright's songs are a variegated lot: "Last Gift" is a remembrance of her father's last words to her as he was fading. "The Shore" is for her mother. "Wendy's Song" is sung through the character of Wendy Coffield, the first of serial killer Gary Ridgway's forty-eight victims. "The Letter" chronicals the tragedy of Akira Nishihira's family suicide. "Soup, Soap and Salvation" is a wry view of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Kroc, founders of McDonald's. "Everywomen's Blues" ponders being "just another white girl singing the blues" despite a pretty comfy life. Nice jazzy feel here especially following Lisa Ann's torch song for "Someone" who mattered a whole lot. "Friend in the Fall" tries to make sense of a broken relationship. "Lucinda" is a rocking tribute to Ms. Williams.
With the variety of themes come a variety of settings. The opener "Lucinda" as noted flat out rocks. "Soup. Soap" is just Lisa Ann and Ira Gitlin's banjo. Bobby Martin's pedal steel and Benjie Porecki's organ lend "Last Gift" warmth and country comfort. In "Wendy's Song," an eerie opening sound segues to an urgent, grim melody driven by guitar, banjo and double bass. Al Petteway's gentle guitar brings out the despair in "The Letter." The jazziness of "Someone" and "Everywoman's Blues" is bracing.
Sweet Bye and Bye is beautifully produced and engineered with lovely sound to best showcase Lisa Ann's warmth.
Michael Tearson - Sing Out! (Summer 2008) (Aug 1, 2008)
Read more...