Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Music / Post No Bills Portland singer Sallie Ford toughens up her music but sounds safer
Posted By Peter Margasak on 11.05.14 at 03:31 PM
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- JASON QUIGLEY
- Sallie Ford, standing, and her band
On her first two albums Ford was backed by a combo called the Sound Outside; on the new one no backing band is credited, but she has an all-new band, one that brings a louder, more muscular attack to her songs. The music sort of grinds now, whereas it used to swing quite a bit. And rather than juxtapose her unique voice against the noise, she's chosen to toughen up her own delivery as well. The record was produced by Decemberists guitarist Chris Funk, and his efforts further flatten Ford's music into something that sounds much more ordinary and compressed. There are some songs that retain traces of Ford's earlier work—when she doesn't push her voice into something more superficially hard, she reveals flashes of her buoyant past, when a cavalier demeanor and nonchalant bravado sounded much fiercer than her current mold. Below you can hear the single "Coulda Been," one of the harder-rocking entries on the new album.
Ford headlines the Empty Bottle on Thursday night.
Today's playlist:
Stan Kenton, Kenton Showcase (Capitol)
JD Allen, Grace (Savant)
Samuel Blaser Consort in Motion, A Mirror to Machaut (Songlines)
Ralph Alessi, Baida (ECM)
Jonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense, Moment & the Message (Pi)
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