Zeile August releases "Lucy's Hobo Package" at the St. Lawrence Center for the Arts in Portland, Friday, June 26, 2009

CD Review by Bob McKillop

Picture at left of Zeile August by Sam Cousins!

Surreal dreamscapes; stories lush with beautiful, dark images, depicting abandonment and personal drama; songs of searching, questioning, and imagining;  Zeile August’s songs are full of these elements.  They are Picasso paintings, rendered in lyrics, harmony and melody.

Zeile August’s second studio album is “Lucy’s Hobo Package”; it will be released at a show this Friday night, June 26th, at 8:00 PM at the St. Lawrence Center for the Arts, on Munjoy Hill in Portland.  It will be a special night of special music: August will be joined on stage by Fred Morin, Peter Alexander, Sorcha Cribben-Merrill, Johanna Conlan, and Sean Mencher.

This disc contains eight very cool songs that are very much in the same vein as those on her debut CD, “Orion’s Belt”.  The new release is much more full in its production, arrangements, and instrumentation.  It has a fresh spirit and a slightly more upbeat tone than its predecessor, but the songs are still sort of spacey, moody, and psychedelic.  Listening to a full album of this stuff can, indeed, be mind-expanding.

My favorite tune on August’s first CD was “Junebugs”.  It starts out by painting idyllic scenes of a child’s innocence and freedom.  But we quickly realize that the song is an expression of hope for the child to grow up free from the problems that her parents could potentially lay on her.

“Junebugs” is a good jumping off point to the work August has done on her new CD.  It is a dark song with a bright, breezy feel to it; it’s a little misleading. 

“Comin’ up Roses” is the lead track on “Lucy’s Hobo Package”, as “Junebugs” leads off the earlier album.  It too has a bright feel to it, even more so than “Junebugs”, thanks to the great electric guitar riffs and the spare snare drum and other percussion.  But the theme is dark as well.  None of Zeile August’s lyrics are very literal or straightforward: you need to think them through.  This one seems to be about escaping from a dysfunctional family, finding a way out, and being pulled back.

“Galaxie” is the next tune, and it’s more mysterious, with a heavy kick drum and an ominous bass line.  This is a twist on the “vehicle as metaphor for relationship” motif.  August paints some vivid pictures of automobiles and roads and brings them into the theme. 

“Lay me down, down to dream

And let the road roll right on over me

Well you’re looking for the next exit sign

On this highway

And you’re wonderin’ if you’re ever

Gonna get off and when you’re gonna be free”

August’s vocals are distinctive in their softness, in the way she uses dynamics, and in how she emphasizes the vowel sounds in her lyrical lines.  She brings a spooky, Fender Rhodes quality to the vocal track.  Listen to her pronunciation on this tune – she uses it to highlight important lyrics and focus us in on the imagery.

“Bonnie Rose” is a simple melody backed by a very dramatic distorted guitar riff and drum track that evokes a distant summer lightning storm coming in on the wind.  It’s a song about careless sex, unwanted pregnancy, abandonment, and the decision to make it all go away.  August has done a wonderful job writing this song.  The story comes out and the characters are developed skillfully and fully, in very few words and, mostly with images and small events.

Fred Morin was great on upright and electric bass on “Orion’s Belt”, and he returns to contribute to this CD as well.  Eric Heintz provides the spacey distorted electric guitar that is so much a part of the sound of this record.  Drums and percussion are by Mark Cousins, with some help from Jonathan Wyman. There’s a special appearance on several songs by Karl Anderson on Hammond and Rhodes.  Johanna Conlan sings a duet with August on “She Walks the Fields”.  Zeile August and Jonathan Wyman co-produced the album, and it was recorded and mixed by Wyman at “The Halo” in Portland.  Adam Ayan mastered the record – wow, pretty good lineup!

I enjoy August’s songwriting, and I think it is what makes this CD so good.  It was the songwriting that kept me engaged: the eight songs on this disc are wonderfully arranged individually, but taken all at once, they can begin to sound alike. Zeile has a deep well of inspiration, and a complex muse that provides her with real-world vibrations of unseen forces in the cosmos.  I enjoy listening to these vibrations and attempting to sense what brings them about.  You will too!

Don’t miss the CD release party, this Friday, the 26th of June, 2009, at The St. Lawrence Center for the Arts (which is practically in Zeile August’s back yard),  76 Congress Street, on Munjoy Hill in Portland.  The show starts at 8:00 PM and will be a blast.