Full disclosure department: since my first review of Susan\u2019s work, we have become friends. I don\u2019t think this influenced my opinion in the least.<\/p>\n
Because this album freaking ROCKS.<\/p>\n
Susan has thrown open the proverbial doors to guest stars on this one. Appearances include Americana artist The Bottle Rockets (who I\u2019m going to write a feature article about here very quickly; I have a few interesting things to say about their classic \u201cIndianapolis\u201d); singer\/songwriter\/producer Mark Erelli, whose credits include working with Paula Cole, Mark Cohn, Rosanne Cash, and Sheryl Crow; Bill Kirchen of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen (\u201cHot Rod Lincoln\u201d); Boston musical legend Dennis Brennan; and singer\/songwriter Todd Thibaud (the former front man for the Courage Brothers).<\/p>\n
I find that many times this many cooks can make the pot a little muddled. Not so here; I could tell what Cattaneo was doing on this one right away. A double CD, disc one is more upbeat and dynamic (I assume \u201cThe Hammer\u201d) and disc two showcases more of her country roots (\u201cThe Heart\u201d). Imposing some sort of organization really makes this flow seamlessly and yet still allows individual tracks to stand out.<\/p>\n
The first track on the CD blows the doors off. \u201cWork Hard, Love Harder\u201d with the Bottle Rockets is a driving, rocking, Tom-Pettyesque reflection on time passing and living your life to the fullest:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFather Time has got a job to do
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Punches in his timeclock, then he\u2019s coming for you
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You pray to St Joe for that nine-to-five
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You should be praying to St Valentine\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Cattaneo\u2019s voice is amazing. A smooth and clear alto, she puts me in mind of Mary Chapin Carpenter or Carrie Newcomer, but her roots are all Elvis Presley.<\/p>\n
Other highlights are the dark \u201cThe River Always Wins\u201d (the best flood song since The Rainmakers\u2019 \u201cWe Walk The Levee\u201d); the sweet \u201cWhen Love Goes Right\u201d; the torchy \u201cDoes My Ring Burn Your Finger?\u201d; the wistful and sad \u201cSmoke\u201d (\u201cLovin\u2019 you is like catchin\u2019 smoke\u2026<\/i>); and a killer cover of, of all things, David Bowie\u2019s \u201cSpace Oddity\u201d. There isn\u2019t a weak track on \u201cThe Hammer And The Heart\u201d; it\u2019s solid work all the way through.<\/p>\n
More impressive to me \u2013 it\u2019s a double album. I always feel like double albums ramp up the difficulty exponentially; I can think of a handful of double albums (Dan Fogelberg\u2019s The Innocent Age<\/i>, Steve Wonder\u2019s Songs In The Key Of Life<\/i>, The Who\u2019s Quadrophenia<\/i>) that manage this. It\u2019s a rarity, the musical equivalent of a baseball perfect game, and Cattaneo pulls it off flawlessly.<\/p>\n
If you like Americana, country, rock, honky-tonk, or anything in that vein, you owe it to yourself to pick up The Hammer And The Heart.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8416],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-46200","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-susan-cattaneo","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46200","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46200"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46200"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}