| CD REVIEW |
| MOTHER EARTH - LISA WINN |
| In the nine months I have been resident in Hamilton, I have discovered a seemingly ubiquitous and prolifically productive musical network centered around Rob Lamothe, Jamie Oakes and Lisa Winn, with Tom Wilson, Ray Materick and others weaving in and out of this web. Ms. Winn, Ontario's version of Joni Mitchell, and internationally speaking, Chrissie Hynde and Patti Smith, has created a musical collage produced by and featuring Rob Lamothe on guitar, keyboards, etc., as well as Jamie Oakes, Les Cooper, Shannon Lyon, and a host of other Hamiltonian musicians, including Grandma Mcnarin on a little ditty called "Swing Song". Judging by the CD cover (never a good thing), I wasn't prepared for the "in-your-face" aggressiveness of the opening track, "See Right Through Me", nor the hilarious bonus track (untitled), which contains the lyrics "Well, maybe you think I'm some crazy psycho chick; well, what do you expect, I'm a musician...with eight cats"! Half the tracks are Lisa's own perfectly compelling creations, and the other half are excellent contributions by Ray Materick ("Mother Earth"), Mike Daley ("Wishing on the Moon") and Rob Lamothe ("Brown Haired Angel", with both his and Jamie Oakes' signature stamps on it), as well as "Forgive Myself", a Lamothe/Winn collaboration, all within the realm of roots music. Far from limiting herself to this genre of music, there's a great mix of techno-psychedelia ("Dirty" and "Gone Too Far", with Jacob Moon on lead guitar, reminiscent of Garbage as well as The Pretenders' "Room Full of Mirrors"), aboriginal cantations ("Love" - recorded live at the Hamilton Place Studio - and "Brave", featuring Nathan Deschamps on steel guitar), as well as Mike Daley's Gypsy-roots track, "Wishing on a Moon". Although this is not a new CD (released in 2000), I'm very pleased to have gained this musical acquaintance and look forward to hearing an apparently more hard-rock-oriented music project by the Lisa Winn bands. Check out her website at www.lisawinn.com for numerous upcoming concerts in the Hamilton and Toronto areas. P.S. Thanks to photographer John Carson for this musical gift and profuse apologies for being such a slowpoke! |
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