This is a gem of a CD from a North Shore artist that BillCopelandMusicNews.com missed when it was released several months ago. Erinn Brown Band’s Rule My Life features the title track and 11 new arrangements of her own original songs she previous recorded on earlier CDs. This collection of rearrangements is only fitting, as Brown, a musical genius in the tradition of Ray Charles, Glen Miller, and Count Basie, constantly tweaks her songs and her covers into something new and different every few months.
Opening her disc with a hopped up version of “Eye For An Eye,” Brown’s guitarist takes the listener through an edgy journey with a brisk phrase that gives off sparks at every turn. Bassist Alison Keslow and drummer Steve Peabody put a knobby groove beneath the guitars and vocals that keep this song running through rock territory. Brown’s smoky, West Virginian accent wraps around the rhythmic thrust with a natural, organic, earthiness that makes her sound so real. Possessing one of those voices that other singers wish they could have, it’s a treat for roots rock fans to hear her emit passion, such a wholesome siren.
Brown takes it down tempo for “Time To Waste,” a contemplation of boredom and depression that swaggers with a contrasting confidence. Brown’s natural vocal timbre resonates with down home earthiness as she finesses her lyrics with sweet sustains, holding her vocal notes in just the right places. The musical accompaniment that sways around her voice is outstanding. An organ melody stretches is bluesy notes around her before a vigorous guitar phrase pushes a second energy force into this song’s sonic interior.
Title track “Ruled My Life” is the only wholly new song on this disc. It’s a snappy mid-tempo rocker about independence that comes from realizing it’s time to move on. Brown reflects a great deal of sass as she belts her way through her feisty chorus. She also has all of her support players injecting plenty of snap, crackle, and pop, especially a thin, rootsie guitar phrase that takes its sweet time walking the melody around the block.
“Dig Out The Pain” is a slow burning soul song. Brown’s soft timbre flirts with the lyrics in a sensuous hush. Her voice burns like a candle, keeping a hot flame glowing in a darkened room, as she pushes this all forward with an unwavering verve. A lead guitar line smolders in the darkness too, moving around a pulpy groove with a desire to burn. Alison Keslow’s bass work and Steve Peabody’s stick work, so tasteful here, so sensitive to what the song needs, support the vocal and guitar melodies with appropriate touches.
“Take It Slow” is a bouncy, gently riffing tune that finds Brown cruising vocally over snappy guitar lines and a punchy groove. The contrast between vocal glide and peppy support is striking. The singer emotes with her earthy timbre and her energy combines with the groove even as she flies like a bird, giving just a hint of rustic music influences in her projection.
A new arrangement of her “Apartment Blues” shows that Brown can handle mid tempo, swaggering blues as well as she did her earlier, brisker version. Brown’s organic vocal range lets her reach into the emotional frustration that comes from dealing with landlords and other rent offerings. She lets her feeling be known with an attitude that comes across loud and clear in each sustain before stepping back to let her band strut their own blues chops.
Brown’s most successful reworking here is probably “Towards The Sun,” a down tempo, soulful vocal tune married to a pure, easeful groove. It’s uncanny how well this singer-songwriter-arranger marries her deeply felt, rooties voice to a mournful melodic guitar line. It’s soul meets melancholia with light at the end of the tunnel, a light this singer drives toward with a simmering belt that grows stronger as the theme becomes more forceful in each successive lyric.
“Get Of My Way” is about telling all of the obstacles in one’s life to go away. Brown unfurls her forceful attitude in small, incremental, digestible bits before one realizes this song really means business. With a rangy voice packed with emotion, Brown emits both emotional strength and musical fiber, pushing fools out of her way as much as she pushes this song along with her persistent vocal belts and sustains.
A title track from her second to last CD, “Love Is A Peace Of The World,” becomes more of a swaying, jazzy affair this time around, at least in contrast to her previous anthem approach. Here, her song gets more of a sweeping, swaying energy while her first effort at this tune was more a neo hippie bus ride. This one has its energy moving around within many inner currents that Brown pulls in one direction with firm musical authority. A zesty groove makes everything work here, from the floating vocal to the spiky electric guitar bits, to the hopping groove beneath it all.
“And In The End” rocks right out. This Brown protest song nails down her contempt for people not getting along with one another due to foolish matters. Singing in a straight forward approach over brisk guitars and a racing groove, Brown requires no affectation as she belts out her frustration with modern day-media spawned crisis scenarios. She has no problems managing her vocal gymnastics as she hurls herself through her twisty lyrical pattern. Within her tight arrangement and up tempo croon Brown still manages to fit in tasteful sustains and punchy, belty moments.
“Cool Summer Rain” might be one of the coolest slow songs ever written and recorded. Brown’s whispery, sexy vocal coats this soulful dandy with sussurant delight. She’s learned her lessons well from all of the soul singers that came before her before forming her own special way of projecting emotion in a down tempo original. She purrs with emotion while her support band offers rippling electric guitar soul and a meaningful groove.
Brown closes out her disc of new arrangements with a feistier take on “I Can’t Stick Around” than what’s found on her 1999 debut album Road Signs To The Sun. Belty vocals and spiking guitar lines still contain the original track’s meaningful desire to move onto other things even though the songwriter has been in a pleasant relationship. This time around, there is more motivation to tap one’s toes.
Brown conveys deep emotion, sometimes many at once, regardless of dynamics, tempo, color and tone. This Ruled My Life outing is an exciting exploration of musical possibilities, of what else can be done with arrangements when a singer-songwriter has a good mind for that kind of work.
