The Tara Greenblatt Band’s latest CD release Let’s Wake Up showcases her unusual ability to combine her percussion skills with her singer-songwriter flare for describing the inner life of women. While her Greenblatt’s songs build up vocally, lyrically, her bands mates expand her musical ideas until their presence is larger than life. The listener easily becomes enveloped in the width of groovy sound coming out of these songs.
Opening track “Hey” grooves forward with mellow percussion and gentle acoustic guitar chords keeping beat. Greenblatt’s scatted chorus creates a communal feeling with her primitive vibe, chanting and cooing from the heart. It’s impossible to not get pulled into the intriguing pulse.
Title track “Let’s Wake Up” finds Greenblatt and her backing vocals cooing prettily, sweetly, their voices trailing off in sustains that ooze like honey from heaven. Greenblatt’s smooth, understated lead vocal moves around her groove with a wandering ease. The beauty is in her unique motions as well as in her voice.
“Loose” is an aptly titled song. Greenblatt’s folksy, neo hippie vocal motion carries well over this piece’s light acoustic guitar and nimble low end line. Greenblatt and her backing vocalists create the feeling of the never ending train ride they sing of. Their voices rise up to represent the plumes of smoke from the engine. Their tumbleweed rolls through their vocal rides remind of the piston action of train wheels, and they make you wish you could be on the train with them.
The jaunty acoustic guitar strum of “Catch And Release” combines with bass plucking, forming a natural percussion sound, full of depth. With such a tuneful push, it’s not surprising that Greenblatt reaches into her greater vocal gymnastics. She really bends her lead vocal around that groove, giving even greater motion to her song. Her coos and sustains extend into a folksy gospel mash, natural from the acoustics, spiritual vibes coming from the voices. “Catch And Release” is simply full of good spring, all sorts of things bouncing off each other as well as bouncing on their individual momentum. The musical expression also captures, perfectly, the kind of groove that two human beings get into in the song’s lyrical theme.
Similarly, the peppy percussion Greenblatt brings to “Friction” matches beautifully with the interpersonal chemistry in the lyrical theme. As the playful rhythm bobs up, down, and sometimes goes to the side, Greenblatt’s narrator, too, finds herself between two extremes. She’s either bored and unsatisfied or she’s overstimulated during a ride. Her voice rides the waves of musical accompaniment as smoothly as a white glove on a stairway banister. That’s a neat trick in her vocal repertoire, keeping the listener more engaged with her ability to ride over all. Backing vocals here are another important feature. They keep this song in motion and add to its color. A nimble acoustic guitar comes into play, giving this piece another bit of flinty resolve.
“Curiosity” begins down tempo with sultry lead vocal surrounded by sweet gospel like harmonies. That nice balance of salt and sugar works as an intro into a breezier section. Blending her considerately paced vocal with pretty harmonies on selected words, Greenblatt gives this song a special warmth, an ebullience of emotion, sweet, tender feelings that march in short, quiet steps. Backed by jaunty percussion line and flinty acoustic strumming, this one carries forward in its own light.
Making a muscular entry with large acoustic acoustic guitar progression, “My Body” means business. It’s in Greenblatt’s more palpable percussion slap, in the mournful chorus, in band member Ramsay Thomas’ thick bass notes beneath the lead vocal. Greenblatt infuses her voice with a take no prisoners tone and an assertiveness that perfectly captures the essence of her theme. She captures what many women are currently feeling in the country right now, combining spiritual angst, anger, frustration and a need to channel those turbo charged emotions into the right action.
Greenblatt shares her observations about a creepy, crawly creature who took up residence in her home. “Spider” finds this singer-songwriter detailing her house guest; its webs, prey, and how she feeds it bugs that it mummifies with its web. This is not a metaphorical song. It’s not a cautionary tale. It’s also not a sentimental relationship song. It’s a whimsical observational song that respects nature and how it plays out. The song has a gentle calm which reflects the patience Greenblatt must have had with her sub tenant. Despite the less than attractive subject matter, Greenblatt’s voice still sparkles as she moves through witty lines, morbid lines, and strange lines with an even application of her voice.
Nimble acoustic lead guitar work from band member Lucio Saverio-Eastman sweetens the emotive “What Would Love Do.” Its brittle, shiny lines wrap coolly, tightly around the groove, giving this tune a special gift wrap. Greenblatt keeps her vocals as rapid as the racing guitar line, pumping much feeling into this as she hoofs through it. She reveals a lot of emotion with her breathless delivery, a song that you can tell she’s having fun with, her sustains, coos, and staccato vocal adding a lot of twisty adventure.
Gentle and weepy, “Grieving” lets Greenblatt show her most emotive side on this album. With only Mark Shilansky’s soft raindrop piano notes accompanying, she draws much feeling from her lyrics using a tasteful self-restraint. Greenblatt’s vocal power is kept simmering just below the surface, making her presence more striking.
The exotic close out track “Hips” utilizes Spanish guitar, loose percussion, and a moaning synth to create an alluring haze. Greenblatt brings it so down tempo she’s almost talking, until her thoughts are celebrated by a warm, cooing chorus. The music intrigues more and more with shifts in tone, dynamics, and tempo, a large living thing with many moving parts. It’s a big impressive work that showcases how Greenblatt’s no thrills vocal approach hits the mark just right when she’s singing about the glory of womanhood.
The Tara Greenblatt Band conjure many alluring sounds on this Just Wake Up album. Aside from the usual vocals, percussion, acoustic guitar, and a lot of harmonies(Grace Aldrich and Shana DeLorie), there are newer tones, motions, and approaches. Greenblatt and company have improved upon the sound of their previous release Animal Body by keeping open minds about the possibilities of their instruments. Mixed by Ben Rogers of Loudsun Studios in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and mastered by Jonathan Wyner at M-Works, Somerville, Massachusetts, Just Wake Up get a maximum performance and clean sound out of each instrument and voice.
