Shakey’s missus steps outta the shadows. Neil’s helping out.
When you’re married to songwriting genius Neil Young, it must’ve been a
daunting task making your own record. Even more impressive is that Warner’s
have boldly signed her, considering her lack of recognition as a writer in her
own right.
When listening to it, it’s a bit worrying that hubby is on board, but I
suppose inevitable. He plays guitars, electric sitar, harmonica and vocals
backed by a host of luminaries like Spooner Oldham. Living next to a state of
the art studio on their Californian ranch, it was only a matter of time before
she threw in her penny’s worth.
Despite her lack of experience as a lead singer (she’s been backing Neil for
30 years) she makes a real fist of her debut, venturing very much into hubby’s
musical landscapes adding some well done covers that ponder the tug of war
between love and independence.
Many of the songs were written more than three decades, not that that matters,
six of which appear here.
Pegi says of her efforts, "I’ve been writing songs and poetry since high
school. It was something I’d always wanted to do but could never make time
for. There were other things that took priority."
What we get is a solid enough an album, but it’s not going to set the world
alight by any means. Neil’s distinctive harmonica opens lightweight ballad
Fake, after which Pegi’s often deeply soulful and smokey vocals
kick-in, boosted by some fine pedal steel. Its Hold On that really
stamps her writing potential, an achingly beautiful ballad, though her voice
struggles on the higher notes.
Neil’s twangy electric guitar drench the upbeat Love Like Water but it
gets a bit messy on the quarter and half way points. When she hits the
mellower ballads such as Key To Love and Sometimes she sounds
like she’s in a better comfort zone adopting a lazier tone.
One of her covers, Sometimes Like A River is a gorgeous interpretation,
and predictably texturised by Neil’s subliminal harmonica, more deft pedal
steel and bluesy acoustic guitar picks. Joe Sample and Will Jennings’ fun-packed
I Like The Party Life brings a great bar-room blast which she handles
reasonably well but a bluesy rasp would have sounded better, floating the
vocals above the chugging shuffle and rough and ready backups. Dan Penn and
Spooner Oldham’s country-gospel ballad I’m Not Through Loving You Yet
is one of the album’s highlights.
1. Fake
2. Heterosexual Masses
3. When The Wild Life Betrays Me
4. Hold On
5. Love Like Water
6. Key To Love
7. Sometimes
8. Sometimes Like A River (Loving You)
9. I Like The Part Life
10. White Line In The Sun
11. I’m Not Through Loving You Yet
12. Hidden track: Wrestle Awhile
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
