An Alternate Look at Here and Now

Gabrielle Louise is eclectic, eccentric, seductive, flexible, literate and a plethora of other descriptive adjectives that pertain to music and creativity and yet there is no pining down this woman, no way to sum her up in one word.  She manages to blend seemingly disparate styles of music and lyrics into a captivating blend that seems a seamless whole.  Yet if you look for a single word, or even phrase to describe her music you are going to be horse feathers out of luck; there just is not a word to define her and her music.   She just can’t be pinned down because of her wide ranging interests and ability to see connections in exceedingly diverse material.  She even takes a song about the drinking of alcohol and turns it around on its head in a rather humorous way.

On “If The Static Clears,” we get a homogenous mix of folk, bluegrass, and jazz that bring her vocals to life with the music and make it sound as if it is a whole because she welds music and lyrics together.  Heir voice is going to make time stand still in that it is full, rich and has great nuance in it which gives the song extra spaces for your mind to wander in the song, yet her focus never permits it to drift away into the clouds, or where ever.She manages in a subtle way to build her lyrics so that they are spacious and yet don’t let you wander away.  

This disc is rich and full with plenty of nuance as she explores where her language in collusion with her emotions and observations can take her in these eleven self penned songs.   She is a songwriter as well as a poet, and a prose writer and has also done a TED talk about the importance of inhaling as well as exhaling.  She is the producer as well as the arranger of this disc and her love of live, ‘as it happens performance,’ comes thru;  the stellar highlights as well as the live flaws, the moments that give it life.  A beautifully crafted disc in every possible way that will keep you entertained as well as shining for long periods.  

by bob gottlieb