Remember the first time you heard Tom Waits sing? His raspy, gravelly voice sounded like a troll with laryngitis, but soon that same voice became distinguished, vital and in many ways..“great.” You can say the same for Joanna Newsom. Except for this singer/songwriter, Newsom’s haunting and shaky voice sounds like a pre-pubescent Bjork. And like Nellie McKay who recently wiped the dust off a turn of the century sound, Newsom is doing the same for old time words and an old Appalachian vibe.
After making a name for herself in the Bay area and playing alongside the likes of Cat Power and Will Oldman, Newsom’s sparse debut The Milk-Eyed Mender will not make Newsom a star, but will easily collect her a warm fan base. The music is sparse, as the homely singer is accompanied by a harp, electronic piano, harpsichord, piano, and slide-guitar on two tracks, but it's her voice that either makes a dent or leaves you saying, “no mas.”
Newsom’s harp provides a nice sense of mood and mysticism to the mix, never letting her instruments do too much of the talking. The melodies are atmospheric and moves from the creepy,” Bridges and Balloons,” to the new-age splash of “Sprouts and Beans.” Piano based tunes like “Inflammatory Wit” and “Three Little Babes” steer down more traditional folk paths, while the rest are very harp rich. “Book Of Light On” plays with whimsical rhymes, where Newsom sings, “We should shine a light on, a light on/ And the book of right-on is right on, it was right on.” With the playful song titles, there is a pitter-patter nursery rhyme feel to the album, as “Peach, Plum, Pear” provides a chorus of childish “nah, nah, nah’s” that are somewhat irritating. Well, The Milk-Eyed Mender wasn’t meant to be perfect and neither was Newsom’s voice. But one thing is certain, like Tom Waits, Joanna Newsom is a well acquired taste.
