Self issued (label)
19 May 2014 (released)
10 May 2014
This is DeMeyer’s sixth album and it has me asking why I haven’t heard her before – she is remarkable.
The opening track (and title track) is an acoustic number, slow, dark, dense and redolent of the humid savannah of the south. It also shows that she has a great Blues voice and co-writer Will Kimbrough is superb on guitar – 30 seconds in I was hooked.
Most of the songs are a collaboration between DeMeyer and Kimbrough but the overriding strength is her voice and her phrasing – I have tried to find a voice that she reminds me of but really she is quite unique and brilliant to listen to.
Kimbrough’s playing is excellent whether he is picking away at a metal-stringed acoustic or playing gentle slide or banjo and he adds a texture to the songs that carries you alone before you get into the words but makes sure that you stay with the song.
On a number like ‘Please Believe Me’ she has a whisper in her voice alongside the southern drawl that sounds little-girl pleading yet adult and sexy all at the same time but then you have ‘Conjure Woman’ that sounds like the night and the dark things that are stirring. ‘Lightning Poor’ is moody and almost gospel, filled with soul but still gentle and soft – her vocal is sassy and smokey while Jimmy Wallace’s Hammond B3 takes it into Muscle Shoals and the backing vocals add some New Orleans sass to the song.
Closer ‘My Someday’ is a great piece of Americana – vocals and banjo over a kick beat and the perfect way to leave the listener anxious for the next album.
This is a superb album by a real original talent – special enough for me.
