Singer-songwriter Patti DeRosa has released “Packing My Bags,” a lively and lovely document of her live performances. DeRosa has named this live disc after its opening track. As a musician, DeRosa is always packing her bags to play gigs. Traveling informs much of DeRosa’s songwriting, and so this packing bags theme works on numerous levels.
On the opening title track, accompanying herself with a mid tempo strum, DeRosa let’s her voice take its time unfolding her impressions of her journeys. Her matter of fact delivery belies her concern about not knowing if her plans will suddenly change and how her visits to new lands will alter her feelings about where she is from.
“Bright Lights” is a good showcase of DeRosa’ vocal talent. Unpretentious, she simply puts emphasis on key words in her lyrics, usually with a slight change in dynamics or vocal sustain. Her strong timbre, from there, just fits her words like a glove. This makes the singer come across as conversational as a neighbor over the backyard fence, a neighbor with a gift for storytelling.
“Little Glass Of Wine” has a universal theme. DeRosa reflects on the many reasons, noble and not so noble, that we have for reaching for that romanticized beverage. Her acoustic guitar picking technique kicks an interval of notes along swiftly, adding another layer of depth to her tune. As always, her vocal approach, all natural, gives her an approachable air.
There are songs on this disc that DeRosa developed from a songwriters group challenge. “Stars Of Autumn” is one born from a this experiment. The songwriter uses the heavenly bodies as metaphors for people who have departed this life; their lights shine bright even though the light has been traveling for ages. Memories from DeRosa’s life make good material here. The song reveals raw emotion in DeRosa’s quiet delivery. She shifts gear a little, not forcing her meaning with an inflection or sustain, letting the truth do its own emoting.
The Italian word “Non Dimenticare,” which means don’t forget, is also DeRosa’s thematic basis for this song. You don‘t need to speak Italian. Like great opera, you can feel this one. There is no denying how much significance she places on her heritage.
“Italian Heart” builds upon DeRosa’s interpretation of her immigrant grandmother’s attachment to her home land. The song is a moving toast to a time and to a people who left everything they knew behind. You cannot help but feeling what DeRosa felt when she wrote and what she still must feel when she performs it. She does that thing again. No pretense. Just straight forward delivery. The beauty is in the feeling and the simple truth is in the words. Unadorned universal truth.
DeRosa’s world traveler experience shows again in “Paris,” a city she has not yet visited but enjoys imagining. This is a place on her wish list, as someone who longs for experience in foreign lands. DeRosa does have fun with her imagined Paris. She needs to go there to get it out of her system, and this speaks to the wanderlust in all of us.
A hefty clip in her acoustic strum marks the direct, earnest “Storm In A Cold Room.” DeRosa gets inside the intense feelings of another, even though she merely looks in from the outside. She doesn’t know what is going on, but she knows it is serious, and there is a controlled build up in her music to recreate the tense experience. DeRosa easily pulls the listener into that small room. She might be visiting a friend in a jail cell. It’s like short story writing, and that works well here.
“Can’t Hear Her Fall” is another of DeRosa’s serious drama songs. Her guitar picking technique on this one conjures a lot of heavy feeling with lower notes. There are two tragedies going on at once. No only is someone falling from grace or safety, but she is suffering in painful silence as no one gets what is going on.
“I Cannot Love You” is a moving apology song. Lost love recognizes its own cutting presence and bows out. This song has a unique twist. The one who has fallen out of love tells her tale from a place of compassion. DeRosa brings out the sadness without trying to make either party sound noble or mistreated. Again, she puts across her observation without adornment and the truth speaks for itself. As a performer, DeRosa makes you feel it even more with her understated delivery.
DeRosa gets breezy and easeful on Billie Holiday’s “God Bless The Child.” She widens her timbre so it carries across the room. There is power in DeRosa’s delivery and in a gentle sarcasm that lets you know what she is really feeling.
“I Need A Man” is written up almost like a job description. DeRosa knows how to sum up the qualities she and others like her are looking for in a partner. There is humor and honesty when she sings that she will take on three or four men if she can’t find all her desired qualities in one. Along the way she raises the irony that people who want a lot usually end up alone.
DeRosa rocks it up a bit on “Restless,” her guitar playing heavy and snappy. Low end notes and thick chords give this a spine as DeRosa belts out her frustration about a lack of satisfaction. She makes you feel the dense tension with every note of her delivery. “Resist” continues DeRosa’s earthy, human motivation songs. Mandolin picking from Mike Delaney and djembe from Ken Porter give extra kick to this kicking song. DeRosa doesn’t blame the apple for being a temptation. She feels temptation is the responsibility for the person feeling it, and she doesn’t blame anyone for anything.
“Big Butt Blues” ties into the anxiety of many women. The mission to balance the love of food with a woman’s need to look good in dungarees is set to a 12 bar blues structure. Humor abounds. Yet, many valid points are made in this song that likely finds much appreciation wherever DeRosa unleashes it. She still has Delaney and Porter to push it along with snap.
By this point the listener should feel he was treated to a reasonable facsimile of a Patti DeRosa live show. Her voice jumps out of the speakers with clarity, purpose, and grit. She closes out with her songs “The Box” and “King Of The Sky,” two tunes busting with meaning, memory, and insight. DeRosa makes her case with an unusually strong voice. It is a power that cannot be overlooked on the local singer-songwriter scene.
well-written review. Patti definitely has talent.