This new Beyond Blonde CD Showing My Roots is a collection of punchy songs that pack the aggression of modern rock into a roots feeling and sound. The rootsie, folkie thing is in the lead singer’s vocal and acoustic guitar approach and in the bands tight arrangements.
Showing My Roots opens with a steady, folkie beat on “I Really Meant.” This tune prances around like a graceful boxer, a fighter who can take his time letting loose his better punches. The music is steady and lively with a busy rhythm guitar and sprightly keyboard melody. Lead singer and songwriter Lisa Markovich maintains a breezy pace here. Yet her easy going pace allow her room to unpack her rangy vocal notes. Markovich sings aggressively, but also with a natural sense of when to reign it in. There is an intensity brewing just below the surface of “I Really Meant” that keeps the listener intent on following each note.
“The Letter” quickly builds into a mountain range of vocal vigor and rhythm guitar from Markovich and from the rhythm section’s own personal oomph. Markovich controls the pace of this song with the way she unleashes her rangy, emotive belts at just the right moments. Markovich has become a more mature and more sophisticated writer since she penned the debut Beyond Blonde CD some years back.
Markovich has rearranged and rewritten her song “Religion” for this outing. Her voice is belty, earthy, serious. The acoustic guitar and percussion here are outstanding. They move forward with steady footed assurance, and they sound good without ever becoming pretentious. Donna Compos, drummer from the original Beyond Blonde lineup, keeps the smacks heavy and dedicated. Compos is a rocking woman, and she keeps this song empowered with her use of dynamics.
“Wanna Make You Mine” has a bang up keyboard melody. Keyboardist Gary Ross lays down his chops with steadfast aplomb while Markovich purrs her sensuous lyrics. Belty or whispery, Markovich rules the range of vocal possibilities. “No More Cryin’” features Markovich’s husband Mike on bass and Compos on bongos. This clever arrangement gets its heaviness from something deep forged between those bongos and the low end strings. Compos is also the backing vocalist on this and on other tracks, and she certainly fills out the vocal texture with a wide timbre and lengthy range.
“I Love The Way” is Markovich’s ode to her husband. A warm vocal and acoustic guitar approach is buttressed by a graceful rhythmic pattern underneath. Markovich puts a lot of herself in this song. She doesn’t belt or show off technique here. She lets her heart and soul shine in the personality of this song. Tasteful sophistication in Markovich’s songwriting and tasteful execution by the players shine through on all of these tracks, giving each its own personality. Compos never overplays the tunes, but she does keep the beat right up front where it needs to be.
“Dance Dance Dance,” co-written with Amy Fuller-Berube, has a mild, funky beat that makes you want to sway to its grooves. Fuller-Berube ably assists with the vocal texture, and the two women together sound beautiful. It is a very successful collaboration.
Markovich had been busy up until late with an acoustic trio featuring herself, Compos, and the original Beyond Blonde bass player. That acoustic trio has clearly informed Markovich’s sense of doing more with less. Her acoustic guitar work fills out the tune nicely and its bass accompaniment from Nick Frida is smooth as silk.
“All The Same” moves forward on the strength on Marchovich’s hefty guitar progression. A pleasant aftertaste resides in the organ from Gary Ross, bass from Mike Katz, and percussion from Mick Coste. This groovy, rhythmic broth allows Markovich to dance around the open spaces with her adept, feisty vocal approach. She just stabs her voice into that patchwork of open spaces, keeping the song laced up solid and tight.
Markovich gets back into the full band momentum with “Good Enough,” a self-empowerment anthem that celebrates growth through trial and tribulation. As a vocalist, Markovich reaches some important highs. She keeps her approach just a little less aggressive than a belt, but she does assert her raspy range enough to hit the listener in a good place with her positive vibe and message. It is Markovich’s self-restraint in some of these tracks that makes the difference between them being good songs and being really good songs, and these are really good songs.
“A Little Touch” marks another occasion on this disc in which the acoustic guitar is a big part of the song’s personality. This probably has to do with Markovich’s recent acoustic trio presentations. The acoustic rocks right out. Compos pounds steadily here too, and the symmetry between acoustic guitar and drums keeps it quite flavorful, rootsie, earthy, appealing.
“Demons,” despite its foreboding title, hangs together with sweet acoustic underpinnings, soft electronic keys, and one of Markovich’s gentler vocal approaches. This song lets the singer ventilate things that she had been holding in for too long. “Win You Over” has more of a straight up rock attitude in Markovich’s tough mama delivery. The lead vocal just wraps itself around aggressive rhythms with a muscular grasp. Markovich is a woman who knows what she wants and she wastes no time going after it. Gary Ross’s lead guitar is icy cool, skipping along moodily in the tight space between voice and low end, pinching out some sweet notes indeed.
The album closes with emotional might and instrumental finesse on “September Skies.” Markovich’s lead vocal has a tenderness in the texture, injecting much feeling into her verses. You can hear it in her colors and tones. The band underneath her, Ross’s keys and lead guitar, Mike Katz’s bass, and Compos’s drumming fit the voice like a glove with their assertive applications. Compos plays very tastefully here and Ross is doing some fancy fretwork, pressing out an intricate pattern of pretty notes. Markovich and company go out with a bang, not a whimper.