A country singer songwriter song “I Can’t Love” twangs and soothes but digs its fingers in your arms and punishes as it seduces. The Virginia native in question is Lael Neale and, as some PR thing I read didn’t say, don’t let the charm distract you from the darkness bubbleing below the surface. When the last line of a verse goes “My heart is numb”, you know this self portrait is gonna end bad. Totally addictive and if I could find an mp3 it would hit my fave tracks no problem.
Woody Fuller and I have been helping a friend of ours put together a “Muse And Music” series and we’ve been basically agreeing on the choices when Woody suggested Lael Neale. I thought she she was too pretty to be serious at first look, but changed my mind on first listen.
With a partner in crime playing a pretty good banjo, she nails “Tell Me Lies”, another song written for herself. The middle 8 could be better, the vocal hit harder -though that would be antiethical to the happy/sad axiom she mines. But an intsrumental break is gorgeous, the melody indelible.
The vocals are real interesting -they are light but on top of the melody: there are no jazz inflections, but there is something jazz about them….
So I gave the thumbs up to see if we could get Lael for the “Muse And Music” series.