Cindy Blackburn
Howl Like You Mean It
Independent release, 2012
This is free, and you could point out a lot of reasons why it’s free. The muddy, murky home recording where the ukulele and vocals are fighting one another to get to the mic first, is opaque and distant.
But there’s something that comes through in these recordings. Pluck and an effortless elan abound in these deceptively pretty songs that seem like so many off handed musical asides. Even stronger than a sense of Tin Pan Alley panache and vaudevillian bravado, there’s a sweetly subversive sense of wit Blackburn hints at through out.
The title track and closing number features a duet with her dog, Kiki, howling with earnest intent. If there was video of this, surely it would have gone viral by now.
Let’s hope that she finds time to indulge us once again with some choice songs, and spend a little more time balancing the sound so we won’t have to second guess if she’s being clever, or are we just hearing things.