A decade ago, Texas singer and guitarist Carolyn Wonderland was largely unknown outside of her then-hometown of Houston, though she'd certainly made her mark on the local scene, playing clubs, releasing several albums and picking up a number of awards in the process. Since then, she's relocated to the live music mecca of Austin, toured internationally, played a Janis Joplin tribute at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and even scored a high-profile performance on Austin City Limits.
Carolyn Wonderland's Peace Meal
Wonderland's last album, 2008's Miss Understood, found her teaming with producer Ray Benson (frontman for Asleep at the Wheel) and receiving national acclaim. Now, on her follow-up, Peace Meal, she's re-teamed with Benson for about half the tracks, with the rest produced by multi-talented musician Larry Campbell (and one by former Monkee Michael Nesmith). It's her best, most mature collection of songs yet, and it shows off both her guitar chops and her alternately gritty and smooth vocals. Those vocals are a wonder to behold; she brings a ragged, Joplin-like intensity to some songs, and an understated elegance reminiscent of Susan Tedeschi to others. She ends up splitting the distance between the two, leaving her with the perfect voice for blues songs that rock and rock songs with a blues undercurrent.
Peace Meal opens with a tribute to Joplin, the artist to whom Wonderland is most often compared. She takes a Janis rarity, "What Good Can Drinkin' Do" – in its original form, it was just Joplin's voice and a guitar – and fleshes it out with an attention-grabbing arrangement worthy of its top-of-the-album spot. Wonderland is a master at letting a song slowly build up steam, and here she starts off soft-spoken and unleashes the fiery side of her voice only when the time is right. Her original composition "Victory of Flying" uses a similar leap in momentum, beginning with a skeletal guitar-and-drum pattern before exploding into full-band fury, Wonderland's rapid-fire vocal delivery supporting the song's propulsive drive.
Robert Johnson's Dust My Broom
Wonderland's band members – keyboardist Cole El-Saleh and drummer Rob Hooper – are as impressive as she is; both are versatile musicians who thrive on a variety of styles. The ensemble's best playing is on "Only God Knows When" where, over a New Orleans rhythm, Wonderland sings of war, peace, and the distance between the two, noting that harmony will be achieved only "when we realize we are all brothers." The unit also gels on an aggressive version of Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom;" I'm not sure how Nesmith came to produce this track, but it's one of the better arrangements of the classic song I've heard, with Wonderland's blistering lap steel guitar, El-Saleh's piano, and the rhythm section in tight lockstep with one another.
"St. Marks" marries a 12-bar blues verses to a rock chorus, Wonderland making a nod to the Beatles with a lyrical reference to "strawberry fields." When she amps up her guitarwork toward the song's end, the sense of urgency is palpable. Bo Diddley's "I Can Tell," a minor-key song of heartbreak, is given a 1970s rock treatment punctuated by moody Hammond organ. "No Exception," built on a Rick Derringer-like guitar riff from Wonderland, also harks back more to the classic rock era than to the blues tradition.
Meet Me In The Morning
There are a couple of misses on Peace Meal. "Usurper" is mercifully brief, its psychedelic keyboard and guitar framing silly, nonsensical lyrics sung with a distinct lack of melody. And "Meet Me in the Morning" is an unfortunate rendition of Bob Dylan's blues song from Blood on the Tracks. The band plays it way too loose, making the track feel slight and insubstantial, with Wonderland half-scatting some of the lyrics.
However, when everything comes together, as on the ballad "Golden Stairs," it really works. Composed by Robert Hunter and Vince Welnick of the Grateful Dead, this seven-minute opus boasts an absolutely gorgeous chord progression played elegantly by the band. This is where Wonderland most closely echoes Susan Tedeschi, with vocals that near-perfectly balance grit and grace. Her guitar break is melodic and tuneful, telling as much as of the song's story as its lyrics do.
Ken's Bottom Line
If Miss Understood was the album that started getting Carolyn Wonderland noticed by the national blues community, Peace Meal takes her a step further, capitalizing on the promise of this young musician in a way her previous work didn't. It establishes her as an artist to be reckoned with, one who should be scoring slots at major blues festivals and clubs. She can credibly cover Muddy Waters, but she can also rock out, and she knows her way around songcraft. Let's hope this album takes Wonderland's career to a whole new level. She certainly deserves it. (Bismeaux Productions, released October 4, 2011)
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