Juliet And The Lonesome Romeos lay down plenty of roots rock grit on their new CD No Regrets. The authenticity with which lead singer and songwriter Juliet Simmons croons and or belts out her tunes cannot be denied. She has an easy going, gliding rasp to her timbre that moves around silkily while staying true to honky tonk colors.
Her title track “No Regrets” sweeps in like a pleasant summer breeze with its roots rock earthiness. Simmons puts forth an appropriate rasp. She lets her pretty voice gently sing out these lines without a lot of fancy technique, and she controls the mood with her tender rasp. Her biggest asset is singing with a lot of heart without any affectation. Her wholesomeness is winsome, fresh, and welcome. What you hear is what you get. Simmons holds a note with pure simplicity and it works because she is she.
“Wishing Well” gets a bumpy beat that makes the song chug forward with pushy momentum. Bristling lead guitar sparks up even more energy. Simmons’s voice finds the perfect home amidst this gritty, hearty music, as if she was designed by nature to fit in with anything remotely honky tonk. She doesn’t try to be understated or belty. She goes on instinct, sensitive to what the song needs.
“Song For You” is a gentle sleeper that grows on you as the story moves along. Simmons’s pulls the emotional stamina of this tune forward with her rangy, earthy vocal. She milks each note for all its earth and her voice remains the mesmerizing focal point. You get a sense of how much she loves the person she sings about because she injects much feeling into it with her natural approach.
“Narcissus” is the most powerful statement on the CD. The song is, of course, on one level about a person who is into himself. Yet, at the same time the song is about a woman who is in love with the narcissist. Simmons glides easily through the chorus with true lift. This one is rocking and Simmons rides this bronco with the same calm tranquility she shows on her down-tempo material. The guitar break from Jonas Kahn is killer.
“Winter Nights” gets a lovely acoustic guitar accompaniment from Michael Dinallo, lots of gritty notes that make you sense an effort to climb with purpose up a mountainous mission. Simmons rides her range of vocal possibilities over the space left wide open in this stripped down number. She makes you feel her romantic yearning with every verse she caresses.
“Last Kiss” has a fulsome low end that moves it sweetly along. Simmons sings over the graceful forward music with an unhurried, unaffected quality that remains memorable without beating you over the head with fanciful vocal gymnastics. “Unkindest Cut” gets its indelible melody from Simmons’s vocal line. The guitar line is another good melody too, and the voice and six string together are formidable in this singer-songwriter meets roots rock mash up. Simmons holds a note and it is part sustain and part beautiful coo.
“Faded Highway” turns it down to a ballad pace. The take your sweet time approach allows Simmons to show more of her natural vocal strength. She lets the song flow out of her. Her approach stretches her timbre around the twists of this song with nimble precision. Gritty electric guitar leads tastefully meander and mosey along the long road of this beautiful tune. The bright smooth voice over the twangy electric, subtle acoustic, and Steve Sadler’s lap steel is enormously effective, making the listener feel swept along by its huge, emotive mountain of sound.
“September Day” gets its seasoning from Sadler’s fiddle line and accordion chords while Simmons’s pristine vocal glides over it like something light carried by a warm summer breeze. She fills out her vocal melody lines with heart and soul and lushness, and warmth and zeal. She just has that vocalist’s true gift of making you feel what she was feeling when she wrote her song.
Closing track, “Learn To Love Again” is a tender swaying ballad that Simmons ties together by matching subtle inflections in her lines and other techniques so mild you almost miss them. It doesn’t hurt to have a backing band as empowered in the roots genre as this one. Michael Dinallo, Jonas Kahn, Michael A. Gray, Justin Kolak, Marc Hickox, Jeff Allison, and Amber Casares round out the cast of players. Husband Michael Dinallo and friend Ducky Carlisle produced this gem at Ice Station Zebra in Medford, Massachusetts.
Juliet And The Lonesome Romeos have come up with a roots rock album that’s as Americana as the 1950s gasoline pump on the front cover and the red, white, and blue bikini top Simmons sports on the back. Exceptionally good at rootsie song craft, Simmons brings it all to life with a voice that’s pure as fresh honey and as woefully mournful as a setting sun.
www.julietandthelonesomeromeos.com
