*** Erin Corday SECRET ABOUT THE WORLD (Little Black Dress Records)
This Seattle-based singer/songwriter is singular among the masses of
musicians influenced by Joni Mitchell.
She shares with Mitchell a breathless
romanticism about everyday rituals (bus
commuting is the subject of her best
song) and extraordinary personalities (a courageous Vietnamese painter is the
subject of her next best). What transcends her main influence? Intricate and
percussively powerful guitar playing and a gutsy appropriation of non-folkie
tunes. Her rendition of Sting's
"Fragile," sung in Portuguese(!), is
unforgettable. She's about a quarter-century younger than Mitchell, so she's
still growing. Her voice is best in communicating a shy but attractive
vulnerability, less certain with sex or rage, both emotions clouding her
diction. But this impressive disc, her first to be nationally distributed,
marks her as a gifted musician who outshines countless generic folkies.
-- Norman Weinstein
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