Patricia Vonne – Guitars & Castanets
With a sultry, blood-red vocal style and a dramatic songwriting flair, the strikingly exotic Patricia Vonne combines south-of-the-border mariachi sizzle, southwestern mythology, Texas roots-rock and spaghetti western cinematic sweep on this compelling bilingual effort. She certainly comes by the cinematic connection honestly: She portrayed Dallas (aka “Zorro Girl”) in her brother’s (director Robert Rodriguez) recent noir jolter Sin City; the closing track, “Traeme Paz”, appeared on the soundtrack to his Once Upon A Time In Mexico); and Rodriguez takes co-writing credit on this disc’s title cut. Robert LaRoche plays a key role, co-writing seven tracks with Vonne and providing sturdy guitar and backing vocals throughout. There are also contributions from Jon Dee Graham, saxophonist Johnny Reno, nylon string guitar maven Rick Del Castillo and keyboardist Michael Ramos. For all the variety, Vonne fares best by far on such evocative Spanish-language beauties as “La Gitana De Triana”, “Guitarras Y Castaneuelas” and “Fiesta Sangria”, along with “Joe’s Gone Ridin'” (a salute to Joe Ely), the loping “Long Season”, and the harrowing “Blood On The Tracks”. The only real misfire is “Rebel Bride”, a truly scary foray into Patty Smyth bombast that, despite a sizzling guest turn by Charlie Sexton on guitar, not only fails to rock, but leaves her voice dangerously overextended. Overall, though, Guitars & Castanets is a bold venture dripping with passion and style.