Voted the Best Independent CD of 1995 by Music Monthly, "Chapter 1" is Repass' debut album. An acoustic-oriented collection of songs ranging from simple and elegant to rock n' rollin', "Chapter 1" will touch you no matter what style of music you're used to.
Singer/songwriter Wendy Repass, the "romantic folkie with the big, eccentric voice and powerful, phase-shifting ballads." Hearing Wendy Repass perform is an experience that can only be described as raw energy: refined, passionate lyrics, searing guitar licks. Genre: Folk, rock, progressive, blues. Influcences include Indigo Girls, Peter Gabriel, Melissa Etheridge, Sarah McLachlan, Seal.
Review
Music Monthly
June, 1995 Issue #129 Vol.12#6
By J. Doug Gill
Wendy Repass: The Coming of Age
Normally, when I sit down to write a review for this page, a lot of thought goes into the introductory paragraph. Spinning a few phrases, positive or negative, to entice the reader to stick around for other the other couple hundred words.
In the case of Wendy Repass’ Chapter 1: The Coming of Age, one word will suffice: Brilliant. Glorious. Splendid. Stunning. Grand. Superb. Well, six words.
Simply put, this 13-song, acoustic goldmine is chock full of vivid imagery, hypnotic instrumentation, and alternatingly soothing and raucous vocals that add steroid-enhanced muscle to this radiant collection.
Soft violin bedding handles melodies such as "Trust My Heart" and "Glass Ceilings" as if it were wearing gloves, and lyrics like "better to hated than ignored" reveal a songwriter who is full of cynicism as she is sentimentality. The sparse, intimate "Childhood Dreams" is the kind of song that makes torch singers cry and other composers green with envy, while "I Believe" sounds as if it were born from the Indigo’s Amy and Emily. But I won’t insult Repass with comparisons to her contemporaries, as the disc tracks with a delightful consistency that pushes it beyond familiarity.
As a wordsmith, Repass weaves magic. You can’t help but empathize with the veiled bitterness of "Mud and Tears" and you can’t help but root for her when she swears off her abusers by showing contempt for them ("you got eyes but you can’t see that something is going to change"). And just to rock the boat a little, Repass straps on a electric guitar, surrounds herself with a tight little bass/drum combo, and the trio blow the roof off the dump with a fiery little rocker called "Tiger Wakes". I could talk about this woman all day.
In all, Chapter 1 stumbles only once: the alternatingly talk-sing-talk pattern of "Janty", but even that tune is rescued by a homespun narrative and tasty guitar/banjo interplay. The rest of the effort is a series of snapshots, some taken from a wide-angle and some with a telephoto, and they reflect multiple layers of engaging musicality and a lifetime worth of memories.
"Got my words, my songs, my guitar; I’ll go far," Wendy Repass states emphatically in "Trust My Heart", and she won’t get any argument from me.
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