‘Speeding Ticket and a Valentine’ is the latest release from BLAME SALLY, a San Francisco Bay area band comprising of Pam Delgado on drums, percussion and vocals, Renee Harcourt on guitar, mandolin, banjo and vocals, Jeri Jones on guitar and vocals, and Monica Pasqual on keyboards, accordion and vocals. The band has been together for about ten years now, and their music falls well within the Country/Americana bracket.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard of the band, and I think that at least half of the ten tracks on this album are either excellent or very good, however, on some of the tracks I found that the arrangements plodded slightly. The lead vocals are shared throughout the album by Monica, Pam and Renee, and is done in rotation, which does impact on continuity, however the girls’ harmonies are really good.
The opening track ‘Bird in Hand’ is probably the best on the album, an alt-country guitar song which takes the boy meets girl, boy treats girl badly, boy eventually loses girl story. What I really liked about this was the lyrical imagery, which manages to get the ups and downs of relationships spot on: -
“She was young and you were, too, but your heart was cold and grey/ A pretty lass, as clear as glass, a diamond for a day
You held her hand, the promised land, her fears you did allay/
Babe you had a bird in hand and in that hand she stayed.” So far so good, but eventually it all turns sour: - “Your pretty thing, a memory, had long since slipped away/ They said she died by the riverside on a chilly autumn day/ Babe you had a bird in hand but the bird has flown away.” There are a few killer lines in this and one I particularly liked “Years went by, (& all that implies) and with age came dismay.”
After a track this good, it is difficult to keep up the standard, but with ‘Big Big Bed’, the band manages to do just that. There is some great slide guitar from Jeri, which works well with Monica’s Wurlitzer and accordion. There is also a great echo on this track, which adds to the atmosphere. The lyrics are apt and to the point: - “I need a big big bed to save the dreams that I've dreamt/ Catch 'em in this linen net and keep 'em so I don't forget.”
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‘Living Without You’ is a lot faster, a guitar based country rock song with some lyrics sung at quite a pace: - “I'm a hacker I'm a con, I can't even write a song/ I can't sing a note if you paid me/ No-one home, always gone, never right always wrong/And I haven't got a God who can save me.”
This was another one that was right on target, but after this, I found the album a little patchy. ‘Back in the Saddle’ was another good track with some more good slide guitar, and was the only track on the album that was written by the band as a whole rather than the person taking on the lead vocal duties. The lyrics seem to be about the sort of strong woman who’s a survivor capable of taking the knocks and getting back up and on with life again: - “Swinging from trees it's a cold city jungle. Take what you need or get left in the rubble/ don’t look behind. It's just dust and a pile of dreams.”
‘Countdown’ is another track that breaks the mould, with the Wurlitzer and drums far more up front. This is a song about someone who has had a guts full of society telling them what they should do, watching the news and seeing nothing but death and despair, and at this time probably has a greater resonance than had it been released a few years ago: - “I'm sick of the news they're talking at me/ everybody's killing everybody,
everybody's killing everybody. Countdown every night.”
Overall, I thought that this was a good album, with some killer tracks, but one that was a bit hit or miss. Luckily there are more hits than misses, and I can see this going down a storm at least with American(a) audiences.
Blame Sally online
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