PINEY GIR
Geronimo!
Damaged
Goods
Kansas
City's exiled contemporary queen of the heartland returns with
album
number five. Recorded
in Hollywood far from her adopted homeland in the UK and produced
by Rob Campanello of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Geronimo! sees
Piney stepping out without her regular accompanists The Country Roadshow
with backing instead provided by a pool of musicians including
members of Brian Wilson's band. With its wide range of detectable
influences and its finely worked abundance of style Geronimo! feels like a latterday relative of the sort of mid-late ’60s female
singer songwriter albums that might have once upon a time seen the
light of day on labels like A&M, Liberty or Buddha.
While
it's Piney's engaging vocal presence that first grabs the listener
by the arm Geronimo! broadens the scope from her justly celebrated
country roots by incoporating a more
eclectic approach as demonstrated in the contrasting moods of the album's
13 tracks. This at times eccentric jigsaw of sources and
references
includes at various points echoes of Jackie DeShannon ('Outta
Sight'), what sounds like a previously unreleased backing track
from Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band's Safe As Milk
sessions ('Here's
Looking At You'), what could pass for Astrud Gilberto lounging
out with the forementioned Magic Band ('The Longest Day Of Spring')
and the unmistakable chiming resonnance of The Byrds ('WouldYou Be
There'). And so
it continues on the lovelorn balladry of 'The Gift' and 'Stay
Sweet'
the former complete with an exhuberant brass section to the fore on
the outro, 'River Song' – a revamped hoedown seasoned with lively
flourishes of fiddle and accordion which includes the self-effacing
line 'I'm just a girl from Kansas City' and the jaunty 'Let's
Get Silly' which gallops along like a runaway square dance.
Arguably
saving her best for last Piney signs off with the hauntingly reflective
'Say Goodbye'. It's a tailor made album closer which somehow
along the way manages to press into service what sounds like a
passing
Mariachi band as the song builds towards its final melancholic climax.
Now if a patchwork of styles like this isn't motivation enough to make
you want to listen up it's difficult to figure out exactly
what
will.
All
things considered, with its sophisticated performances and the sheer
inventiveness of the songwriting Geronimo! captures the personality
of a quite extraordinary girl from Kansas City. Pine on Piney!
Pine on!
Grahame
Bent
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