MANDY MERCIER: Wild Dreams of the Shy Boys

Mandy Mercier

Wild Dreams of the Shy Boys

© 2001 Mandy Mercier Music (BMI) (733792339323)

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A singer-songwriter who rocks, Mandy is a friend and contemporary of artists such as Lucinda Williams, the Flatlanders, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jimmy LaFave.

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From "No Depression" magazine upon release of "Wild Dreams of the Shy Boys"; Mandy is currently writing songs for a new album. Check out her website for more information. Here's the review!!

Mandy Mercier's third album rocks harder than anything she's done before, but it doesn't forget to roll, either; it's as close as she's come to sounding "commercial," if such a term can apply to a DIY effort.

As co-produced by the Austin singer-songwriter with John Harvey, "Wild Dreams of the Shy Boys" is an exemplary disc of rootsy folk-rock that also bears the unmistakable stamp of guitarist-and-more Gurf Morlix. Mercier's husky voice and her boundless energy and emotion propel the mini-dramas in these songs; it's an instrument fit for the blues (such as her reading of John Lee Hooker's "Worry My Life") as much as for country. Her clipped phrasing gives rockers such as the opening "Already Fallin'" real urgency, while ballads such as the bottom-heavy "Anything Less" and "See It Now" simmer with anxiety, sorrow and resolve.

Morlix provides an appropriately spacey solo on "Make It Back to Midnight," while Ian McLagan's burbling, swirling Hammond organ and Mercier's own fiddle color the set. The guitars on "No Foolin' the Cards" alternately ring and rumble, while the moral outrage on topical songs such as "Homeless" is palpable.

Except for the Hooker tune and her version of Lowell George's "Willin'", reprised from a 1998 compilation album, the songs are all Mercier originals. The title track, with its traditional/contemporary imagery, is a fitting closer to an album that is confident and even a little reckless, tuneful and deeply felt. Mercier often gets lost in the shuffle of Austin singer-songwriters, but few of them can match her evocative songwriting and gutsy performances.

--John Morthland, No Depression (July-August 2001 issue)
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Read the Austin Chronicle interview with Mandy Mercier by copying the following URL into your browser: http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2001-05-11/music_feature2.html

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  • This CD is a slam-dunk slice of bluesy, folk-rockin' Americana !
    author: Michael Clay

    Wild Dreams of the Shy Boys is a CD chock full of stirring, heartfelt tales set to strong blues and folk-rock melodies. Ms. Mercier assembled some of Austin's finest musicians to lend a hand on the recording sessions and, they definitely did her proud. Though not as well known as some of her peers, this well respected musician could teach some of them a thing or two. Folk in A - pick up on Mandy Mercier

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