Kate Campbell – Blues And Lamentations

Kate Campbells latest album sounds like a collection of dusty memories from a half-century ago. Maybe it is. Campbell writes in the liner notes about how, as a little girl, she loved listening to her mother play St. Louis Blues on piano. These eleven originals and two traditional covers reflect that old-time ethos with a mix of rootsy arrangements and searing lyrics that have more to do with lamentations than blues. Campbell has a way with throwback tunes: The stark Shallow Grave could have come straight from an Appalachian holler circa 1930, and Freedom Train borrows biblical imagery for a song that would have fit the 60s civil rights struggle. Its not all lean times and watery grits, though. She takes up a different cause with Free World and Peace Comes Stealing Slow, songs with a levelheaded anti-war bent clearly based on the current political climate.