Finally!
David M. Wiley | 03/11/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Jo Carol Pierce released her brilliant debut, BAD GIRLS UPSET BY THE TRUTH, at the tender age of 51, and now, twelve years later, she's finally followed it up with DOG OF LOVE. Although not as absurdist or story-oriented as her debut, DOG OF LOVE has greatly extended the terrain of Pierce's sound. Where BAD GIRLS is a kind of novelistic "country opera" with wildly expansive and interconnected themes, DOG OF LOVE is a more sonic experience, with layers of instruments and voices that are the rich product of three years of writing and recording. As with her debut, some of this CD's best songs are her ruminations on the BVM (the Blessed Virgin Mary), who in DOG OF LOVE mirrors our own human travails, with both the songs "Drunken Rain" and the heartbreaking "Barb Wire Crown" sharing a repeated refrain about Mary shattering "like we do." Pierce wrote many of the powerful piano-based songs by herself, but much of the rest of the CD benefits from excellent collaboration with Mark Andes, David Halley, and guitar-ace Mike Vernon, among others. Especially successful is the strangely constructed "Quicksand," in which Vernon's Hendrixy pyrotechnics greatly enlarge the song's integrity rather than embellish or distract from it. This song and many others illustrate how at home Pierce has become with exploring the sonic possibilities that her collaborators have to offer. Still, the CD's true crown is the Pierce-penned "Barb Wire Crown," which rivals BAD GIRLS' "Buttons of Your Skin" as her most moving composition. I have to admit that I miss the narrator of BAD GIRLS UPSET BY THE TRUTH, but like a great film that we watch over and over, that CD was a once-in-a-lifetime creation, and DOG OF LOVE similarly shows that Pierce has even more sides to herself than anyone imagined. Let's hope that we don't have to wait twelve more years for her next CD. - David Wiley"
