Americana Music Reviews

 

Garrison Starr
Songs From Take-Off to Landing
Back Porch Records


by Jud Block

If it's true that you judge people by the company they keep, then Garrison Starr is one hell of a singer/songwriter. On her latest release, Songs From Take-Off to Landing, she shares studio time with the getting-to-be-ubiquitous Steve Earle as well as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Will Kimbrough, and Neilson Hubbard. But you don't attract this kind of attention as an artist unless your talent is deserving of it, and Ms. Starr shows repeatedly over the course of thirteen tracks that hers more than is.

With a lyrical ability that has more in common with William Blake than a modern master like Jewel, and vocals that are tinged with the influences of Lucinda Williams, Kasey Chambers, Sheryl Crow, and Ani Difranco, Garrison Starr waste no time in convincing the listener she's worthy of the company she keeps. She definitely leans more toward the rock end of twang, but what I really enjoyed about her is the same thing I like in literary writers such as Hawthorne, namely, she makes you think. I realize that's a frightening prospect for many, but Garrison Starr doesn't neatly lay out a linear tale for you to sleepwalk through; instead, she's like a musical pointillist for whom the whole has to be deciphered from seemingly incongruous parts.

On the opening track, "Somethin's Gotta Change," guitar distortion leads into the kind of summertime guitar sound that Sheryl Crow has been struggling so hard to achieve over the last few years. Its optimism is deceptive though as the song is about the frustration of dealing with someone who has been through a relatively minor bad experience, but has allowed it to alter their life and refuses to see it from any perspective but the worst.

How does your world look today
From behind your bedroom shade
Are you ready to give way
You're running low on sympathy
From a space just out of reach
In a comfortable misery

Your foundation has been shaken
So you got a story no one else can claim
No more waiting, no more warning
Somethin's gotta change

"Big Sky" is the musical equivalent of walking a mile in someone else's shoes. It's about the realization that people are far more complex than a gesture or a style, and what makes them unique is not what they're seeing but the way they're seeing it. And no amount of imitation will ever allow you to be that person. Unless, of course, you have a major record company behind you.

I want to see what you see
A special kind of beauty
You give yourself up easily, when you see what you see

I want to hear what you hear
A harmony loud and clear
Custom made for your ear, when you hear what you hear

And from take-off to landing
All stretched out and calling
From take-off to landing, I realize
She's a big sky

"Serves Me Right" is all about the anguish of having no one else to blame but yourself for the situation you're in. And anyone who has actually paid to see David Allan Coe recently will be able to relate to this one.

Of all the things I could be doing
I'm up hours trying to make something of you
I got a new set of strings, not a word to settle on
I been causing scenes at an ending I knew all along

And it serves me right, I guess
For gladly volunteering for a good kick in my chest
It serves me right, I guess
For pretending not to notice I was settling for less

Three songs that really intrigued me were "Madness," "Silent Night," and "Gardenia" because I think they best exemplify what I like most about Garrison Starr. All three of these songs can be interpreted in many different ways; in fact, each time I heard them, I came away with yet another understanding. For anyone who ever doubted that songwriters are poets, check these songs out and then come talk to me.

I really didn't have a single favorite track on this CD, though I did particularly like "Anytime," which is about a musician and her muse; and the songs "Star Power" and "Knucklehead," which take shots at the music business and celebrity. Garrison can have a hilariously caustic mean streak when she wants, and I for one enjoyed the hell out of it.

Garrison Starr is one of the better young singer/songwriters I have heard in a while. She's literate, insightful, and funny, and can be all those things while rockin' full bore without the usual maudlin coffeehouse antics. If you've never heard her before, Songs From Take-Off to Landing is a good place to get on board.

* Shoot on over to www.garrisonstarr.com for tour dates, pictures, and biography of Ms. Starr or set a spell at www.backporchrecords.com and while you're there pick up a copy of her latest CD.


Contact Jud Block at jud-at-rockzilla.net

 
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