Ilene Springer’s new CD Got To Be Brave offers listeners of seriously good singer-songwriter material plenty to feast their ears on. This Massachusetts South Shore artist’s voice gives new meaning to the word lovely and she applies it to several larger than life themes and soundscapes.
Opening with “Invisible,” Springer sets a breezy pace using her ethereal voice as the focal point. Her lush, soft, sweet vocal application lulls the listener in with its earnest, tender reflections about being unnoticed. An emotive and eloquent guitar phrase makes for a good second voice here before Springer brings her bright, shiny timbre back to the top of the piece. She’s a real treat for the ears.
Title track “Got To Be Brave” opens with a beautiful tuft of acoustic instruments. Fiddle, mandolin, and pedal steel offer a tender, heart-tugging melodic weave. Springer, naturally, uses this as a springboard to launch her own special vocal timbre. Her vocal assertions are like bright rays of sunlight on the surface of a lake, strongly present and dazzling to the senses.
Springer finesses a cover of U2’s “One.” She asserts her vocal in much the way Bono does on the CD and her backing band sticks fairly close to the original as well. Still, it serves as a good showcase for Springer’s rare tenderness as a vocalist and her ability to bring a song’s feeling to beautiful life.
“Skeletons And Bones” is a call to reflect on our mutual humanity. Accompanied by a jaunty pop piano line, Springer rides this melody like a velvet glove on a rail. Her bright, sweet croon moves around with the airy lightness of a ballerina, a voice perfectly pretty down to its last note, color, tone, sustain, and everything else she uses to deliver her message. There is also some brittle sweet guitar notes emanating from this piece of ear candy and the low end notes travel with a handsome knobby smoothness.
Springer lets her hair down and rocks out on “Girl With The Wild Hair,” an ode to hippie chicks everywhere. Springer’s vocal darts this way and that, milking this up tempo joy ride for all it’s worth. Her lyrical description of that girl who gives you that stare can make anyone recall a girl like. It’s a fun song and its guitar break expands the musical landscape with a tremendous lift and bright colors. One can almost picture the girl with the wild hair in all of her tie-dyed glory.
Springer gives “Sweet Sweet Love” in this tune that’s beautifully punctuated by a slapping rhythm section and a rippling piano line. Her chorus is pleasant and catchy and she infuses it with her own special pop music charm.
Sweet intervals of flute coat “Ready To Love” with pretty, artistic flourishes. That melody line also gives perfect accompaniment to Springer’s easeful, down tempo beauty of a voice. A sprightly percussion instrument gives this a light groove, one that hit’s the ear gently while pushing the piece with a hip sense of movement.
A tasty slice of Americana fiddle and mandolin usher in “Spectrum Of Colors,” a mid tempo dandy that features Springer’s sweet shiny voice creating a fun, catchy chorus with the sheer strength of her voice, moving forward as she pushes through seemingly simply words. This is front porch acoustic beauty matched with fine singer-songwriter flare.
“Finish Line” continues the Americana flare, giving an old timey patriotic feel to this song about the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013. Springer’s sensitive delivery, carefully measured pacing, and thoughtful lyrics come together well in this meaningful ode to American grit during times of adversity.
“Let Me Be Your Strength” is another work of acoustic instrument beauty. Fiddle and mandolin make their sweet notes beneath Springer’s anthem like vocal work. Her chorus is a call to action, offering her support to one who certainly needs it, and she brings it to three dimensional life with her mighty croon.
“Talkin’ At Me” hearkens back to tough mama rockers of the 1970s. Steadily stomping with a classic rock feel, Springer could be a contemporary of Heart or Pat Beneatar. She certainly means business as she makes her way back to her feisty chorus.
Turning nursery rhymes into rock, “My Mind Never Sleeps” takes the pacing of child like verses and anchors it with a bopping groove while loading it with forceful, accented melodies and vocals. This tune feels truly fresh and original and the ear cannot resist moving along with it.
“What If I Said” is sweet, singer-songwriter fair. Spring’s voice tenderly cruises the surface of this light ditty. Her ethereal voice sounds so at home among pretty flute and bright piano tinkling that it isn’t funny.
Springer closes out her CD with the soul baring ballad “Fragile As I Am,” an open confessional about how she takes the hits in her life. Her sprawling, mournful vocal becomes as beautiful as anything else she sings on this CD because her vocal quality and emotional honesty are like a sunrise over a dark beach.
Springer has created a lovely work of art with this Got To Be Brave album. Her voice is often the large flag that signals what she is feeling. It can also be the emphatic whisper that tenderly tugs the listener’s heartstrings. Outstanding vocals and vibrant musicianship and thoughtful lyrics prove a simple but winning combination once again.
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