Annie Gallup: Pearl Street

Annie Gallup Pearl Street Fifty Fifty 104

Annie Gallup isn't just a songwriter, she's a master storyteller with a poet's grace. Pearl Street is a narrative song cycle rich with interesting characters and vivid images like a great movie. Her throaty alto, reminiscent of Louise Taylor but with a slight slur in her words, flies over a landscape of guitars, keyboard and percussion from found sounds like crickets, footsteps and even the slam of a dumpster hood, all layered and looped, like what's heard in Patty Larkin's later offerings. Interwoven with these magnificent sounds are words like, "... rides her night horse toward the place where the river gives itself to the sea and the fish rise phosphorescent from the waves..." ("Thicker Than Water"). Wow. It's not just what she says but the melody of the words, rhyme and meter tripping up against each other in a beautiful choreography.

Set against a lazy blues guitar lick, "Grace" tells the story of spending a summer with grandma. The tale is told with objects ... porcelain teacups, an overstuffed armchair, photos of a son long dead. Interludes of musical dissonance effectively punctuate the song. A wispy vocal carries the melancholy "Betsi Went to Jersey" and underneath it all, almost where you can't hear it, is a breathing in and out that serves as percussion. It's beautifully haunting. "I Think About Richard" is a dark piece about a troubled soul whose "secrets turned sinister" while the ballad "Tulsa" paints another character in a more tender light. And like the end of a good film, I'm left thinking about the characters and wondering what happened to them. If she writes a sequel, I'll be the first in line to buy it. Meanwhile, I'll settle in and listen to this movie again.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Sing Out Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group