Wemmie Wood
Thursday 10.21.04 [6:53 am]
Would you think of a lovely woman to pay tribute to a band wordly acclaimed as sexist, sounding raw and which members are universally seen as heartless playboys (altough they maintain it's "merely coincidental")? You might not believe it, but such a brave character is for real on this earth, and we couldn't be more happy about that. We're talking about Wendy Ellison Mullen, ladies and gentlemen, who will be remembered by old readers of this blog for the reviews on Ronnie Wood related events which took place in California last august. And it's indeed in front of the Woodpecker that Wem, respected guitarist and singer (normally commited to her outfit Late Summer Purple), takes a bow. It happens in form of a cd, released these days, under the title Ode To Ronnie Wood. Postmaster delivered it today, and a first listen revealed that this is a serious thing. Eleven tracks: ten from Stones and Ronnie solo discographies (my heart increased at sudden its rate on a shaky version of Dance Pt. 1), and a bonus written by Wem, (Ronnie) Play For Me. Believe me, I've heard many tributes lately, but the better one just provided a proper rhythm to shave at in the morning. This is not the case of Ode To Ronnie Wood, which will have you standing on your chair and shaking your hips on numbers like It's Only Rock'n'Roll, or dreaming eyes shut on soft whispers as Breathe On Me. The clue is all in Wem voice. If she had to be auditioned for a rock record, probably, judging by today standards, she would be left unemployed, but her strenght point is really in that opera voice, and I don't care about what modern talent-scout could think.
Also, don't forget to visit Wem site on Ronnie, because her life run on six strings, but she's not a blind childish fan. With more persons like her, devoted to an artist, but serious enough to study and trying to decrypt meaning and structure of his music, the world would turn into a better place. If you won't agree on this, for sure you'll have to acknowledge that her work is a faithful evidence of the fact that bashing Ronnie is easy, but forgetting how good are some pages of his discography is even easier. Sample the songs, enjoy and comment. Ciao, Chris
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