This White Circle on My Finger - Grey DeLisle, Bainbridge, Marcie
Sawyer
Pretty Little Dreamer
It's always a challenge to create a record that's heavily steeped in antediluvian influences, yet still manages to capture the imagination of listeners in the digital age. But that's what Grey De Lisle has succeeded in doi... more »ng with this captivating album, her first for Sugar Hill. A San Diego-raised singer-songwriter best known (until now) for her Hollywood cartoon voiceovers, De Lisle used a small, tight-knit group of musicians while recording on analog equipment in her home studio. The minimalist arrangements frame her dulcet voice with old-timey instruments like autoharp, pedal harmonium, celeste, and piano. The result is a collection of gem-like originals (plus one obscure Kitty Wells cover) that capture the stark beauty and spirit of 19th-century love and disaster ballads in a way that has emotional currency and immediacy for contemporary listeners. --Bob Allen« less
It's always a challenge to create a record that's heavily steeped in antediluvian influences, yet still manages to capture the imagination of listeners in the digital age. But that's what Grey De Lisle has succeeded in doing with this captivating album, her first for Sugar Hill. A San Diego-raised singer-songwriter best known (until now) for her Hollywood cartoon voiceovers, De Lisle used a small, tight-knit group of musicians while recording on analog equipment in her home studio. The minimalist arrangements frame her dulcet voice with old-timey instruments like autoharp, pedal harmonium, celeste, and piano. The result is a collection of gem-like originals (plus one obscure Kitty Wells cover) that capture the stark beauty and spirit of 19th-century love and disaster ballads in a way that has emotional currency and immediacy for contemporary listeners. --Bob Allen
Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 04/08/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Wow... talk about a shift of direction! After self-releasing a pair of semi-dismal rockabilly-retro albums, LA-based singer-songwriter Grey DeLisle has apparently found her metier, slowing things down and penning a bunch of spooky-sounding Carter Family/Dolly Parton-styled acoustic, old-timey ballads, material that fits her somewhat shaky voice much better than the uptempo bluesiness of the rockabilly scene. Before this disc came out, she was firmly planted on my "danger sign" list -- now I'm really curious to see where she goes from here. Admittedly, this disc is still gimmicky and bandwagonesque in an entirely different kind of way, but it has an atmospheric feel that works for me. Definitely worth checking out... Fans of Be Good Tanyas and Jolie Holland will probably like this as well."
The nineteenth century, yes, but not our nineteenth century
Jerome Clark | Canby, Minnesota | 04/21/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Grey De Lisle has beauty -- physical and esthetic -- and an exotic, mysterious name and sound. She is also a brilliant mimic. Reread the previous sentence, and see where the emphasis falls. Was it on "brilliant" or "mimic"? If it was the latter, you'll hear the best imitation that will ever be of Dolly Parton at her most traditional-sounding. If your eye fell on "brilliant," you will probably, on hearing the appropriately titled Graceful Ghost (which you can read on two levels; see "brilliant" and "mimic" above), hear something that amounts to a smart, subtle, deeply understood approximation of the old mountain songs and urban parlor ballads that inspired, and comprised the repertoire of, the Carter Family. Even the titles (though in prosaic fact denoting De Lisle originals) -- "The Maple Tree," "Tell Me True," "Turtle Dove," "Black Haired Boy" -- sound like the titles of Carter Family songs from a parallel universe. Actually, "Katy Allen" brings to the astonished senses the notion of an extraordinarily improbable collaboration between the Carter Family and Donovan. All of the songs here are very good for what they are, if you can accept what they are, but long after you've turned off the stereo -- no matter who you are, whatever you think of what's going on here -- it is unlikely that "Katy Allen" will let you be."
Glorious Forgery
David Scott | Claremont, CA United States | 05/24/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Graceful Ghost is the most gorgeous album from the 1800s you'll hear this year. DeLisle comes on like the ghost of Mother Maybelle or Kitty Wells (although sexier and more polished than either), and her songwriting shows ample hours studying at the feet of Dolly Parton (insert jokes about "the shade" here). A little research shows that DeLisle is an ultra-slick Hollywood voiceover queen and has released two homegrown retro-country albums prior to taking the big leap into spooky folk aimed straight for the O Brother! market. Yeah, I'm a bit jaded, but this album is clearly a fake and not afraid to admit it. (I love how the added ambient crackles and hiss on some songs fade out before the music does!) And yet, it's stunningly beautiful and DeLisle's talent as a singer and a songwriter cannot be denied. But she seems very market savvy/driven and going after a niche, I think; too often from head and not from the heart as it were. Still, it's far, far, far superior to the icky yuppie "country" slopped out on Norah Jones version 2.0. I wouldn't recommend The Graceful Ghost to anyone in place of authentic rural American field recordings, however I do think it stands a good chance to make my list for the best of '04 -- 2004 and not 1804, that is."
Whatta Voice ...
Miguel Gonzalez | OAK PARK, IL United States | 12/09/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"You wouldn't know it if you didn't read her bio or visit her web site, but Grey's done a whole lot of voice overs for cartoons. Real bigtime Hollywood type characters you'd recognize in a heartbeat. But that's nothing compared to her considerable talents as a singer and interpreter of American songs. She's got a true musical instrument that reaches you by telling a story through song. She's just wonderful."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1
