Alice Wallace
Into The Blue
Rebelle Road
A Beautiful and Rich Voice plus Powerful Songs that Cross The Country-Blues Divide.
WOW!
That’s all you need to know……nah…… just kidding!
WOW! Honestly; that’s how I felt the first time I played this album as each song unfurled before me last week. Now I find myself having to do a critique and I’m nearly ‘lost for words’! Yes…..ME!
The opening stanza on first track The Lonely Talking is partly fascinating and spellbinding in equal measure. As you know I hold great stead in a powerful opening track; and this one hit me square across the nose leaving me dizzy and seeing stars. Alice Wallace sounds like a heady mix of Bobbie Gentry, Stevie Nicks and Beth Hart, as she pleads like a Country siren with a heart full of S.O.U.L.
I hate it when I go back to the Press Release and find that this is Alice’s fourth album, with each previous one gaining very, very favourable reviews…….so why have I not discovered her until now?
The next track, Santa Ana Winds is a scary and gut wrenching tale of the devastating fires that covered California last year; and Alice Wallace captures every nuance of the drama with her amazing evocative and soaring voice.
One of the great joys of this album is the crystal clear way Alice delivers each and every song; while somehow leaving When She Cries and the Rootsy The Same Old Song simply dripping with raw emotion.
Desert Rose is both windswept and interesting as this torrid tale of a young Mother trying to cross the Border with her baby to make a better life for them both unfolds like a Steinbeck short story.
Oh dear; what a dilemma I have had choosing a Favourite Song. Do I go for the scorching ‘Cowboy Ballad’ Echo Canyon or the intricate singer-songwriter fayre of The Blue or the epic Top of the World?
It’s actually boiled down to a ‘best of three’coin toss between the warm and tender love song Motorcycle Ride (mostly because they ride a Moto Guzzi!) and the starkly evocative Elephants which is probably where my coin is landing on; as it sounds like the type of song Joni Mitchell would write today, if she was just turning 30.
While ‘my favourite song’ is primarily some kind of Feminist Anthem; just like every other song here Alice Wallace’s sensitive handling of the ‘edgy’ subject matter makes them all accessible to music lovers of all ages, sexes and colours too.
Released January 18th 2019
https://www.alicewallacemusic.com/bio
The Rocking Magpie 