It’s nice when music transcends categorization – it may wrack
\nradio programmer’s brains, but it helps expand the horizons of the
\nlisteners.<\/p>\n
Take Toni Price as an example. Her latest album,
\nSol Power<\/i> is a live effort on a blues label – a release that
\nis anything but blues. Instead, it’s an exciting mix of country and
\nfolk – with possibly a touch of rock mixed within.<\/p>\n
A live set recorded at Railroad Blues in Alpine, Texas, the star
\nof this album might not solely be Price herself, though her vocals
\nare quite good. To overlook the guitar and fiddle talents of Champ
\nHood, and the guitar work of Scrappy Jud Newcomb and Casper Rawls
\nwould be criminal, for they create the texture of this album that
\nmakes it special. Price’s vocals simply are the icing on the
\ncake.<\/p>\n
I often think of the Indigo Girls when I listen to
\nSol Power<\/i>; “Like The Sun” is a great vocal workout and
\ngroove-based number, while “Run, Run, Run” also conveys some
\nhigh-quality energy thanks to Price’s vocals. The light country
\ntouches on the album are especially evident on “The Old Fiddler’s
\nWaltz” and “A West Texas Lullaby,” songs which harken back to the
\ndays of traditional country artists like Hank Williams.<\/p>\n
A surprising discovery on
\nSol Power<\/i> is the audience – namely, how listless they sound.
\nSure, it’s nice when you can hear an audience member shouting
\n“Wonderful!” at the end of “The Old Fiddler’s Waltz,” but at other
\ntimes it sounds like they’re more engaged in their own
\nconversations than paying attention to the music. And their howling
\nin response to Price’s on “Cats And Dogs” – well, it frightened me.
\nIt might have been better, in fact, to edit the crowd out of this
\none.<\/p>\n
In addition, when Price tries to get more rock-oriented, she
\njust falls flat. Fortunately, this only happens once, on her cover
\nof Lee Dorsey’s “Funky,” further proof that white people
\nshouldn’t<\/i> try to be funky. The only other questions I have
\non this album are the opening and closing montages comprising of
\ntrain sounds. Unless these were for opening and closing credits for
\na home video, I really don’t see the purpose of including them on
\nthis album.<\/p>\n
Those minor complaints aside, songs like “Burnin’ Down,” “Sarah”
\nand “#1” create such a blend of folk and country that it will
\nappeal to fans of both genres. And though this was released on
\nAntone’s, a blues-based label, I would argue that it fits in with
\nthe down-home roots of the label. (Price provided guest vocals on
\nfellow labelmate Candye Kane’s most recent album.)<\/p>\n
\nSol Power<\/i> shines brightly on many tracks, and is able to
\ntranscend the few mistakes to create an enjoyable album you’ll find
\nyourself going back to again and again. But here’s hoping that
\nPrice try to capture this magic in the studio next time – the
\naudience might just be livelier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5922],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35872","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-toni-price","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35872"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35872"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}