REVIEW: Kelly Willis, What I Deserve (Rykodisc)
- Chris Hill
It's been over five years since Kelly Willis's third album, Kelly Willis, was released. Between labels most of that time, Willis cropped up often enough on compilations and other people's records to keep her fans appeased. Willis now shows that a long count between releases doesn't mean you're out of the bout. Like fellow country artists Mary-Chapin Carpenter and Lucinda Williams, Willis seems to have benefited from the downtime -- her album glows with attention and care, much like the luminescent photos of the artist herself adorning the CD.
A benefit of being Mr. Music Reviewer: the accompanying press release wherein Willis describes her feelings about each song. It's a fascinating glimpse into Willis' creative process. She co-wrote five of the album's thirteen tracks, and is solely responsible for one of the album's peaks -- the utterly charming ode to her heritage, "Talk Like That." The song finds Willis at peace with a childhood spent moving from place to place, finding firm ground in the fixed lineage of her family. "Talk Like That" gestated from a press conference the singer did with Ricky Skaggs, and the emotional associations which arose as she listened to Skaggs' drawling accent: "Lord how it takes me back/when you talk some."
Pulling from non-obvious sources, Willis covers the Replacements' "They're Blind," Australian Paul Kelly's "Cradle of Love" (never recorded by the musician, only by Down Under country and bluegrass singer Anne Kirkpatrick) and Nick Drake's "Time Has Told Me," of which she says, "This may be the most beautiful love song I've ever heard." Of the Paul Kelly song, she says, "I started working this song with the band before it even occurred to me that there might be something sexy going on here." Despite the naiveté, she perfectly captures the song's mood and Kelly's knack for writing sexual hymns, songs both religiously comforting and sexually arousing: "Down in the valley / You can lose your name / All your sorrow and your pain.../ So baby come on over / And lean your head on me / Come into my cradle of love."
Love and relationships, grist for many an artist, are given their proper due here. "Take Me Down" boards a downbound love train with no marked exits. "Happy With That" wishes the roles reversed in a bad affair. "Got a Feelin' For Ya," wittily written by Dan Penn and Chuck Prophet ("I'm in the mood for somethin' sticky, need my ice cream treat / The road may get rocky, and the ride may get rough..."), provides a touchstone during love's travails.
"Not Forgotten You" and "Wrapped," both written by Bruce Robison, Austin musician and Willis' husband, are placed back to back, neatly describing flipsides of the same coin, loss and love, in short order. Willis says, "I'm drawn into his songs emotionally and not just because I hope they're about me."
The supporting cast is as stellar as the material. Amy Noelle Farris, member of Willis' touring band, contributes in a number of ways: fiddle, mandolin and sweet harmony vocals. Her backing vocals bolster Willis' own lower tones, the sum greater than the parts (particularly on the wonderful Damon Bramblett-penned elegy, "Heaven Bound").
Chuck Prophet (of Green on Red), Jon Dee Graham (True Believers), Bruce Robison, Charlie Robison, Lloyd Maines (Wilco, Richard Buckner) and pleasant surprise Michael Been (of '80s college fave, The Call), among many others, add to the mix, all honed by years of experience playing in small clubs around the country. Dave McNair does a fine job of guiding Willis and her ensemble, keeping extraneous touches to a minimum and focusing on the strengths of the players (as many as nine musicians are listed at one time in the song credits).
What I Deserve is a well-orchestrated balancing act, never overwhelming or slick, and worth the wait.
