Search - Naysayer :: Heaven & Hell & Or Houston

A good song can be deadpan, cutthroat, heartbreaking. A good song can be perverted & romantic & crestfallen in the same breath. On their new album, The Naysayer delivers 12 such songs that will make you laugh out loud, rethink everyday gestures, & hit "play" again. "Deathwhisker" (saki024), the debut Naysayer record, showed newcomer-to-music Anna Padgett to be an instinctive & talented songwriter. Here, the songwriter/guitarist/singer shows she's not a one-stop visitor: like a good novelist, her powers of observation & ability to cut to the heart of things are growing year to year. Cynthia Nelson's (Retsin, Ruby Falls) un-drummer drumming, mischievous angel singing, & strangely beautiful melodic additions are also in full flower, while Tara Jane O'Neil (Retsin, Rodan) provides the inimitable guitar & bass work & finely-honed engineer skills that tie it all together. Everything about this album feels more assured - the singing, the playing, the production, the bitter sarcasm - more assured, but still like a rare, fleeting thing that's hard to label. It reveals its strong Texas roots & the spirit of the title's ZZ Top reference: it's got backroads & beer drinking (whether mentioned or not, the beer's there) as well as a healthy dose of sex, but the Naysayer is not down-home, porch-sitting country. More Flannery O'Connor than Mark Twain, the Naysayer has a darker agenda & vision, with elements of a southern gothic novel infused w/classic pop music