Western Massachusetts-based singer Donna-Lee DePrille takes her listeners on a grand adventure throughout her album All Over The Map. As the album title indicates, this CD finds DePrille strutting her vocal magic through a land of varied genres, song structures, and soundscapes. By the time the last songs concludes, many might feel they have just listened to three or four good albums.
Title track “All Over The Map” sets the shiny pleasant tone, easygoing pace, and positive but gritty attitude for the remainder of the disc. DePrille’s lilting vocal melody sways prettily and with a bit of sass over a traveling groove. She wisely sings in this in a rasp free manner to contrast her smooth vocal with a flinty guitar spark. While she croons with soul, that guitar perks with shiny, spiky bits of joy.
Singing her own arrangement of Charlie Landsborough’s “What Color Is The Wind, Daddy,” DePrille weaves her tender vocal warmly over reflective lyrics. She arrives at a place of true beauty, her voice softly carrying a strong message about a daughter-father relationship. Each of her vocal sustains is a mini gem in and of themselves as she caresses these thoughtful words with her high pretty voice.
The funkier, percussion driven “Only You” lets DePrille rock out more amidst its assertive drive, knobby groove, and edgy electric guitar and piano. Here, the crooner bares her soul with a rawer, more loudly emotive vocal. She struts her stuff with confident swagger as her smoky vocal makes a fierce impression.
“After The Storm” plays out like a pleasant dream. DePrille’s sweet, high, and very direct vocal line cuts across acoustic instrumentation to shine brightly. Her vocal is amidst good company as a fiddle travels lightly through and matches the constant lilt of the vocal line.
Written by Woodstock star Melanie Safka, “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma,” the CD’s most charming number, is structured and performed like an old vaudeville number song. Deprille’s starlet style vocal includes some lyrics sung in French, and, she moves her voice heartily over jaunty lines from accordion, piano, and her own baritone saxophone. Sassy torch vocals meets theatrical score in am amazing way here.
Things get even more interesting at this mid point in Deprille‘s album. “I Need To Know(The Bus Stop Song)” is a pleasant, choir-like interlude before Deprille’s “Afraid,” a mid tempo rocker laced with funkier keys and gliding edgy guitar lines. Her voice is beautifully high and haunted, and her sustains kiss the ear with their smooth, soft allure.
DePrille has given sharp arrangement to the traditional number “Billy Don’t Play The Banjo Any More.” Her high, steady vocal breathes new life into this piece of Americana as a banjo and a drum roll give more flinty lift. Her mournfully beautiful presentation brings home the timeless feelings of loss.
Her modern pop song, “Short Term Lovers,” written by DePrille’s friend E.I. Thrasher, comes complete with programmed percussion, sparkling keyboards, and swaying synths. DePrille, with her versatile delivery, finds a good home among these trappings as her vocal glides soulfully through a theme of brief love.
DePrille amazes with the way she switches gears to different tempos and to different song structures. “How Do You Feel” by her personal pal Gary Fletcher, is an up-tempo pop rocker with easeful instrumentation that DePrille flies over with a matching, racing smoothness. Speedy flourishes of lead guitar, organ, rhythmic flow, and DePrille’s fast delivery keep this one in perfect motion.
DePrille‘s songwriter friend Brian Harrison wrote “Crazy As Me” which finds DePrille rocking even more aggressively. Sassy, bold as she confronts the issue of the allusive, unattained lover. Her voice expresses her desires well, and her support players turn up the heat with scorching lead guitar, fat organ riffs, and a propulsive rhythm section.
DePrille closes out her album with another of her originals, “No Insurance Blues,” a slow boiler that lets her use her torchy approach to emote widely. She expresses the pain of having to chose between proper care and being able to pay the costs. She successfully maries the blues to the protest song to come up with a solid album closer.
DePrille’s All Over The Map is one hell of an album. She moves gracefully between singer-songwriter material, rockers, pop, and blues while making it all look easy. Each song has its own personality, and DePrille makes each one work with her own personal magic. Her main partner in crime in this effort is producer Nate Christy at Six String Orchestra studios. Their musical cohorts are Dan Prindle, Taylor Barefoot, Christopher Glanville, Michael Stutz, Sara Kochanski, Ron Cummings, Mary Witt, Brian “Harry” Harrison, Cynthia Rose, Tom Willy Filiault, Mark Edward “Bing” Eithier, Victoria DePrille, Jonny Rodgers, Paul Kochanski, Dan Holden, Darby Wolf, Michael Slahetka, Shubalamanda Saraswati (Larry Kopp). Donna DePrille and her gang do amazing teamwork on this recording.
