Some CDs sneak up on you. This one kicks you in the teeth from
the first moment it hits the laser. The opening bars of “Northern
Girl” was my first introduction to Cheryl Wheeler’s shatteringly
lovely voice, and it was like a shot of whisky; rich, complex, with
overtones that defied analysis at the first hearing. I’ve listened
to
Different Stripe, her first greatest hits CD, pretty much
constantly since then, and I still think I haven’t heard it all —
but the discovery’s been exhilarating, and I think I can safely say
this woman is brilliant.
She’s a storyteller, a musician’s musician; she’s never had a
straight job, but rather has remained fully immersed in her
musicianship. Her concerts are legendary; apparently her
between-patter is funnier than sin. I don’t know about that; I do
know the woman can sing like an angel and writes lyrics that bite
like the devil.
The musicianship on
Different Stripe is excellent; specific moments like the
violin on “Arrow” (performed by fiddle great Mark O’Connor) and the
heartbreaking piano intro on “Moonlight And Roses” set the
essential simplicity of Wheeler’s voice off perfectly. Production
and engineering are excellent, despite disparate source tapes; some
of these cuts are from a Capitol Records release in 1991 that was
immediately dropped so the label could focus on promoting Garth
(*yecch*) Brooks. (That’s not to say Garth Brooks is bad. He’s not,
necessarily, but did the world really NEED another Garth Brooks
record more than it needed Cheryl Wheeler?)
There are so many good tracks on this CD that I have no idea
what to highlight — except one track. See, everyone has a song or
two that symbolizes a point in their past — and at one point in my
past my ‘signature song’ was “Addicted,” performed by Dan Seals
(who is, in my opinion, one of the better country music artists of
the last twenty years). Well, damned if Cheryl Wheeler didn’t write
“Addicted,” and this CD includes her original version. Yep. Still
means something, some fifteen years later. If that doesn’t explain
why this works, you’ve either never been in love or you’re
brain-dead.
Look, I can sit here and babble about this CD all day, and I
can’t find a better way to summarize it than this: Cheryl Wheeler
is brilliant,
Different Stripe is brilliant, you should go buy it and
support yet another real musician who’s fallen through the
big-label cracks.
