The Shee
Different Season
(Shee Records)
The novelty value of all-female Celtic ensembles went out the window when Cherish the Ladies emerged in 1985 and raised the quality bar. The Shee is Newcastle's answer to CTL, a sextet of young women whose debut album is crisp, bold and electrifying. The angelic harmonies of Rachel Newman, Olivia Ross and Laura-Beth Salter would alone turn heads, but the instrumentation is even more impressive. They breathe new life into well-traveled material such as "Chilly Winds," "Lady Margaret" and "MacCrimmons." On the latter, the band enters the musical dimension in which electronica and tradition swirl and collide. This is no novelty act; it's the real deal. —Rob Weir
Polk Miller & His Old South Quartette
(Tompkins Square)
Mark Twain once said he thought that Polk Miller and his quartet were "about the only thing the country can furnish that is originally and utterly American." These recordings, made in 1909 and 1928, will be of great interest to fans of early American music. Miller grew up on his father's Virginia plantation and fought in the Civil War. He learned banjo from slaves and teamed up with a quartet of African-American singers, making this among the oldest recordings of interracial music-making in the U.S. —John Adamian
Rivers Cuomo
Alone II: The Home Recordings
(DGC/Interscope)
Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo reveals his struggles with the finer points of pop songcraft, his motivations as a rock star and his efforts to make music as moving and transcendent as the songs he worshipped by the Pixies, Nirvana and the Beach Boys. The liner notes—with lots of interesting candor about his studious efforts transcribing classic songs, practicing and writing—are as compelling as the demos, which suffer slightly from the absence of the crisp drumming of Weezer's Pat Wilson. On the whole, it's got more crunchy, funny pop than Weezer's most recent record. And fewer cringe-inducing moments. —John Adamian
Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs
Dirt Don't Hurt
(Transdreamer Records)
British singer/songwriter Holly Golightly and her American sidekick Lawyer Dave do a beautiful job of avoiding an oft-heard sin of folk music: skimping on the exuberant back porch sloppiness that makes folk music the music of just plain folks. The two aren't overly careful in recording or in how they play and sing, and the result is much the better for it. This is a comfortable record, packed with junkyard percussion, percussive string-playing and half-identifiable sounds backing up layers of vocals that reveal few virtuosic fireworks but conjure insistently rhythmic, darkly rural imaginings. This is the CD to pop in the player next time you pilot a rusty truck through menacing backwoods. —James Heflin
