When this CD arrived for review I was seriously worried. Not only is it by a band with the quite frankly appallingly bad name of Wookalily but it also featured artwork that looks like something out of the Teletubbies. I was afraid I was in for a very bad time indeed and that bad impression only increased with the very Teletubby-esque cover for the cd booklet.
When I finally got the guts up to actually play the album and saw the awful photo on the inside of the gatefold digipack I was terrified that these four women were going to sound like they were playing music for infants, yet thankfully the band name and artwork are the worst things about All The Waiting While.
From the opening Hands Pass In Time it's quickly apparent that Wookalily are in fact a very good indeed country-folk act with a good dose of Bluegrass thrown in for good measure. I really love Don't Speak Of the Devil: a song that fair motors along with some very nice harmony vocals over some very quickly picked banjo. It's no wonder these Belfast ladies are getting interest from Nashville as this certainly doesn't sound like it's come outta the Falls Road.
Diamonds And Gold is all carefully plucked strings and beautifully sung lyrics. It's a real beautiful love song with some nice glockenspiel chiming in perfectly mid song. Memories Of New Orleans sounds like The Troubadours Of Divine Bliss singing about their home town rather than a collection of memories from some visitors. A lovely song with some excellent fiddle playing.
Black Magic Doll has a real swing to it and sounds like it was written with a folk dance in mind. Things then slow down for Got Me On My Knee: a song of love lost and lonesome feelings. Fire Below sounds like an old folk tune and has a good stop start bit where the whirling dervish-like music comes to a stop and then launches off again. It sounds like live they might play every verse faster than the last.
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Banjo Blues are, well, just that; a paean to the banjo that sounds like it might have a kazoo playing in the back ground at a couple of points. Johnny Kicked The Bucket sees them adding a gypsy hoedown feel to things. It's easily the best song on the album; a great sad song that's well worth hearing.
Broken In Two is a little bit too winsome for my tastes but if you like a sad break up song played at a funereal pace on banjo and ukulele you may well like this. The album finishes with The Devil Is A Woman and yes, she stole your man for sure. It's full of spite, bile and is a good closing track for a surprisingly good country folk album. I would tell you about the bonus track To A Dove but as I'm so old school I don't know how to use the scan code thingy, so I can't download it to hear.
Still if you can get past the band's awful name and artwork this album is well worth hearing and the hearing part is really all that matters. Find out more at Wookalily online
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