Carolyn Wonderland "Peace Meal"

Blue Rose, 2012

A powerhouse Blues-Rock Wonderland

• Twenty years into her career, Texan gunslinger Carolyn Wonderland has clocked up some 8 solo albums and counting.

• She seems to have everything going for her..Dylan is a fan, and she’s assembled a supporting cast of talented, and Grammy-laden luminaries to back her up both in front of the mic (Cindy Cashdollar, Lincoln Scleifer, and the McCrary sisters to cite a few) but also behind the boards, as Larry Campbell oversees several numbers recorded at Levon Helm’s Woodstock barn, and even former Monkees guitarist and nascent country-rock pioneer Mike Nesmith steps in to produce one song.

  On this album Wonderland has made a conscious effort to step away from the rigid Texan blues model of her Modus Operandi to take in some of the further reaches of American music’s landscape. Having said that, much of the record is still constructed of basic 3-chord blues-rock stompers. However, we get some New Orleans gospel in ‘Only God Knows When’, heady Stax soul in ‘St. Marks’ and some country in closer ‘Shine On’.

  Wonderland’s originals are solid, but a fair percentage of the album is given over to spirited covers of some fairly heavyweight originals. Janis Joplin’s ‘What Good Can Drinking Do’, Muddy Waters’ ‘Two Trains’, Elmore James’ ‘Dust My Broom’ and even Dylan’s own ‘Blood on the Tracks’ classic ‘Meet Me In The Morning’ are attempted here. Carolyn Wonderland handles all the guitar work here, and she is a startlingly eloquent and occasionally jaw-droppingly impressive guitarist (best displayed on her own ‘Victory of Flying’, where she is truly on fire), but she is seemingly sold on her voice – and she possesses a dextrous and flailing bluesy holler, carrying with it some experience, maturity, and more soul than Wigan casino, though sometimes with the temptation to be unnecessarily overwrought (‘Golden Stairs’ for example) just because she can.

  Nesmith’s emergence on Blues standard ‘Dust Mt Broom’, a version which can’t really add anything to Elmore James’ ancient & definitive reading, fails to up the ante any. Similarly, she adds her soulful histrionics to Dylan’s blues sneer of ‘Meet Me In The Morning’ without really claiming anything of the song for herself. Her guitar and slide work on said works however is beyond exemplary, and becomes the highlight.

  Carolyn Wonderland has an undeniable charisma, and her guitar playing in simply extraordinary, which begs for these songs to be experienced live. Vocally, she has a sweet holler that imbibes everything here with feeling, warmth and energy. On paper this should be fine, but she doesn’t really seem to measure up to the behemoths she decides to cover; a shame seeing as her own original songs are so enjoyable and weighty. Wonderland has much to offer, though she doesn’t need to rely on the catalogues of America’s legends so, her own songs and her incredible guitar skills are more than worth the price of admission.