ALBUM REVIEW: Dion Highlights Women Collaborators on ‘Girl Friends’
Henry Carrigan
Posted On March 7, 2024
Since the start of his career in the 1950s and ’60s, Dion has surrounded himself with women — whether via musical odes like “Runaround Sue,” “Donna the Prima Donna,” and “Ruby Baby” or through collaborations with musicians like Ronnie Spector, Patti Scialfa, and Darlene Love. Now on his new record, Girl Friends, 12 acclaimed women join Dion again, bringing their powerhouse instrumental virtuosity and towering vocal artistry to this collection of songs.
The album covers a lot of musical ground. Carlene Carter’s crystalline vocals lay down an ethereal backdrop to the spacious, cinematic “An American Hero,” weaving under and around Dion’s gruffer vocals. And Valerie Tyson — who sings with her band at a bar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida — gambols effortlessly from pop and soul to old-time rock and roll on the prancing jaunt “Stop Drop and Roll.”
But mostly, Girl Friends stays within the realm of the blues. On the opening blues rocker, “Soul Force,” Susan Tedeschi lays down some scorching lead guitar work, blowing in like a gale force wind and steering both the tempo and the melodic direction of the song. Bassist Danielle Nicole lends her gritty vocals to the Kansas City jump blues “I Aim to Please” and Christine Ohlman, known as “The Beehive Queen,” lays down a gauntlet of soul blues in her growling call and response with Dion on “Do Ladies Get the Blues.” Modern legend Shemekia Copeland and Dion engage in a bantering lovers’ game in the jazz blues conversation song “Mama Said,” with Copeland reminding Dion why his mama said that she was the one for him. The album closes with the fiery blues guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor delivering her characteristically searing guitar work on “Just Like That.”
As he did on 2020’s Blues with Friends and 2021’s Stomping Ground, on which he invited musical collaborators including, among others, Joe Bonamassa, the late Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Paul Simon, Samantha Fish, and Marcia Ball, Dion here opens the door to his “girl friends.” The result is another album on which Dion his friends shine brightly, enjoy each other’s musical company, and lay down some sizzling tracks.
Dion’s Girl Friends comes out March 8 on KTBA Records.
