Lyrical ladies…
Angel Forrest is a throwback to the singer/songwriter days of the 1970s. On this album of originals, she mixes and matches partners, sounding like a modernization of The Eagles or Poco, but with a lady at the mic. The band includes Denis Coulombe/g, Ricky Paquette/g-mand, Joannie St. Amant/b, Marc-Antoine Dauphin/dr, Bernard Quessy/key and various cameos for the eleven pieces. She is able to rock, as with Kal David andLauri Bono on “Just Enough” and she gets swampy with Brandon Isaak on ”Whiskey & Wonder”. But most of the time, you get rural sunsets as on “My Favourite” and the folksy “ Living Bardo” with a dash of C&W on “Better Side”. Lyrically, Forrest weaves in observations and reflections, with the heart of a traveling troubadour, looking for a place of rest.
With a voice ranging from Patsy Cline to Betty Boop, Tia Brazda taps into mostly Depression Era tunes with a simpatico team of Mike Freedman/g, Joel Visentin/p, Chris Adriannse/b, Max Senit/dr and a collection of guests on horns, percussion and strings. Her enunciation is clear on the traditional two stepper “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” with Alex Baro’s trumpet and she gets down and dirty on the rootsy “When I Get High, I Get Low”. She goes uptown with a George Shearingish cool “When The World Stops” and gives a gypsy flavor to “Easy L iving” when accompanied by violinist Drew Jurecka. A nice night at the Moose Lodge.
Vocalist Tetel Di Babuya acts out her songs like a one woman show as she teams together with Daniel Grajew/key, Nilton Leonarde/b-g, Emilio Martins/dr and Richard Fermino/ts-tp through a mix of music and moxie. She’s confident as she scats the intro to “Lullaby Of Loveland” and goes through the funky chicken on “Clean Cluty” Her style is kind of vaudevillian, throwing in her violin and a lot of schmaltz on “For One Man Only” and the two stepper “Not About Love”. She’s come hither on the samba’d “Mea Culpa” and finally learns that less is more with Grajew on a lovely read of “Someone to Watch Over Me”. The life of the party.