"Waves of Silence" by Carolyn Currie

CD Review by Bob McKillop

Carolyn Currie has a gift for getting inside the heads of the people who inspire her songs and bringing the deep essence of their experiences back to the world for the rest of us to understand on a level that we otherwise would not even approach.  Let’s face it, this is the job description for a songwriter, and she is amazingly qualified for the position.

Her fourth CD is “Waves of Silence”, and it is filled with quiet but powerful energy and insight.  All of these songs are well constructed and beautifully performed and produced.  Several of them stand out as amazing examples of songwriting inspiration, arrangement, and musicianship.

Carolyn’s voice is distinctive in its understatement.  Her quiet, quivering, almost whispered lyrics, with clicking consonants and crackling sibilance, instills in the listener a confidence in her care and love for the song.  The very well executed finger picked guitar style that she employs consistently throughout this record might be considered overused in other circumstances, but it works here, thanks to the wonderful instrumentation and arrangements.

The opening song is “Rain”.  Carolyn’s acoustic guitar and David Lange’s keyboard combine to evoke the feel of a rain shower beginning and intensifying.  The track is perfect for the theme of the song.  It has been very difficult for artists to address the issue of the Iraqi war without coming across in a trite or off-hand manner.  Carolyn gets it right, and as a parent of young children, she is writing from direct experience here.  The task of finding a way to explain war to kids, and to help them feel safe, when you’re not so sure about that yourself, is a tough job.

“But the bombs have started raining from the Bagdad sky today

And my children keep on asking about this war

Yes I know that I’m the grown-up but I don’t know what to say

I don’t believe in violence

I don’t believe in hatred

And I think the world’s a scary place to be today”

 

Speaking as a songwriter, I must say that there are two songs on this disc that are truly inspiring.  One of them is entitled “After”, and the other is “Rolling Thunder”.

“After” is a devastating study of the experience of a wife left behind by the suicide of her husband.  How Carolyn got this far inside the head of someone in this situation is beyond me.  Her vocals are perfect:  she sounds scared, angry, devastated, and confused but determined to find a way out of the grief.  In the second verse, an electric bass and kick drum groove appears in a very subtle and buried country beat, and a quiet rockabilly electric guitar riff is heard here and there like the sound of a distant storm.  These parts never overpower the acoustic guitar or vocal track.  The lyrics took me far down inside this deep, personal experience.  Carolyn somehow manages to tell this story clearly and concisely in images and narrative that are at once highly dramatic, but conversational.  No small feat.

 

“But now the phone just keeps on ringing

In my head and in my dreams.

With hollow eyes and silence

I am living in a scream.

And the words bled out around me

As surely did your life,

And I can’t describe the horror now

Of living as your wife.”

 

In “Rolling Thunder” Carolyn does it again.  This young woman songwriter was born around the time that the Vietnam war was just ending.  She somehow manages to capture, in a masterful song, the tragedy and anger and love wrapped up inside a Vietnam veteran who survived the war only to be disabled and diseased by the weapons he and his comrades used there. 

A military beat on a snare drum sets the time and place, and reverbed bass drums become cannon and bombs in the not-far-enough-away distance. The track is moody, introspective, and sad, but filled with the wisdom of experience and grief.  The verses tell the story and bring the experience to the listener, but the chorus lifts us out of the song like a helicopter rising out of the jungle.  We gain perspective, and we come close to understanding the deep heartbreak and human connection that is conveyed in this song (but of course, we never truly will.)

 “When the snow’s falling down soft in December

Closing my eyes I can’t help but remember

The light sting of chemicals drifting around us

And changing our world.

And the cancers that bloom in our bodies and minds,

The battles we still seem to fight all the time,

And the way Vietnam marked us and claimed us as hers,

My brothers in arms”

 

Wow.

Carolyn gives us a break from the emotional roller coaster with “Hot for a house”.  This song has a sultry bass and guitar track, and pouty, sexy vocals and lyrics.  An erotic household budget?  The use of womanly wiles to get material possessions?  It’s all here.  And I’m pretty sure she got the house.  This really is a fun song.

“Baby, oh baby, that little red house is all that I need and now

Darlin’ lover darlin’, a little red house with a garden

I’ll be your lover, I’ll hold you so sweet

Oh tonight, oh tonight, you're in for a treat

The interest is low and the market is good

Come on baby, oh lover, baby buy for me buy for me

Do what you should now baby”

You’ve got to hear this one to really appreciate it!

Carolyn recently signed with High Horse Records, and they released this disc.  It was co-produced by Carolyn and David Lange (Joe Crookston, David Roth), who also did the recording and engineering.  He helmed Carolyn’s earlier release, “Kiss of Ghosts” as well.  The tracks are razor sharp, the parts are well separated, and the whole package just brings joy to the listener.  There are some great arrangements here, too, and Lange’s musicianship on the keyboard is impressive. Roberta Downey, Paul Elliott, and Dan Mohler (cello, fiddle, and fretless bass, respectively), fill lots of emotional space with the string tracks.  John Morton’s electric guitar adds creative highlights to all of these songs.

Carolyn’s CD pre-release party was held at the Southworth Planetarium on the USM Portland Campus, on December 6th.  It sold out completely.  She has scheduled another performance there for folks who couldn’t get in to the first one (although many of the attendees at the first concert immediately re-upped for the second one!)  This second chance to hear Carolyn live is on January 17, 2009, again at the Southworth Planetarium.  I’ve heard it’s a great place to see some stars.

You can purchase “Waves of Silence” (either MP3 downloads or the physical CD) directly from Carolyn’s website.  I highly recommend that you own these songs.