On our last trip to St Andrews Mrs CC came away with a slab of Country CDs. Among the not surprising offerings by the likes of Nanci Griffith and Mary Chapin Carpenter there was one outlier Rumble Doll by Patti Scialfa.
Best known to most as a member of the E Street Band from 1984 and as Mrs Springsteen from 1991. However among us Bloggers her main claim to fame is having been at one stage a downstairs neighbour of Jonny the Friendly Lawyer
The album is from 1993 and is the first of her three solo albums.It is produced by the Boss and Mike Campbell of Heartbreakers fame who contributes much of the music on the album. Nils Lofgren, Jim Keltner and Benmont Tench also make appearances.
Impressively 11 of the 12 songs including the two below are self-written.
It is a lot better than I thought it would be. Allmusic gives it 3 out of 5 which is just about right. 3.5 if you were being generous. Would Columbia have released this without her Springsteen connections? Probably not.
Her voice puts me in mind of Stevie Nicks and in particular Emmylou Harris. I was making comparisons in my head with Emmylou's Wrecking Ball album although that did not come along until 1995.
Patti Scialfa - Rumble Doll
Patti Scialfa - Valerie
I've always like Patti's voice and played this album a lot in the shop when it was released. It's a shame that she hasn't released more music under her own name over the years. The Nicks/Harris comparison is a good one.
ReplyDelete