Canadian singer-songwriter Cat Clyde is folk, country, rockabilly and blues, punk even, with plenty of hyphens therein. An old-school glint glimmers throughout her songs, yet they sound like echoes from tomorrow, too. Part of that has to do with her vocal prowess. She sings loud and strong, reminding me of certain big-voiced country artists of yore, while her songs recall the confessionals shared by yesteryear folksingers. Mud Blood Bone, her latest long player, is a much-needed update of both ancient art forms.
The 11-track set, inspired in part by the end of a decade-long relationship, opens with the bluesy “Where Is My Love,” which finds her lamenting the lack of a starry-eyed suitor in her life. In the press release, she shares that “[i]n the past, I felt like love chained me, controlled me, put me in a cage.” Now that it’s absent, however, she realizes that she misses it: “I wrote these songs at the end of a big cycle,” she explains. “Love was not present in my life and I didn’t know where to find it or how to get it back.” The result, as she sings, is that “I got a hole in my chest/I can’t take the emptiness.” The pain is visceral and real, guttural, with a ‘50s-styled guitar solo serving as her shredded heart.
“Man’s World” steps into the ring of gender politics, decrying the dangers presented by strangers and loved ones alike. The moody “Wild One” celebrates the natural world, while “Dark Back” features a late-in-song piano solo by Erik Olson that’s reminiscent of James Hooker’s work with Nanci Griffith. (High praise, that.) A sultry rhythm underpins “Hold My Hand,” while the mesmerizing “I Am Now” shares the weird stillness that sometimes comes from being alone. She told Palm Spring Life in an illuminating interview, “At one point it was just me and the keyboard player…and it’s just so moving—tears were falling, and we all had to separate, leave for like an hour, and come back.”
“My Love,” a 1960 Marty Robbins hit, celebrates the natural world: “My love is the valley/The breeze is its sigh/My love is the mountains/That reach to the sky.” “Wanna Ride” ups the tempo to a punk-like frenzy while slamming the door on the anger and tears that follows heartbreak. The jazzy “Night Eyes,” which follows, is something of a throwback; she told Palm Springs Life that it’s her favorite of the new songs: “It’s really a song about freedom and being cut loose, and all the gifts that come flooding in when you make room, you know, and the confidence that I’ve gained in it.”
“Press Down” is another rave-up, this one written with Courtney Marie Andrews. In the press release, she recalls, “I brought the song in, unfinished and in pieces, and we sat on the floor in her lovely home with tea. It was beautiful to dig into it with her, and to discover the song contained answers to questions I had been avoiding, truths I didn’t want to look at.” The album concludes with “Another Time,” which delves into a few of my favorite topics: the elastic nature of time, which expands and constricts depending on a multitude of factors.
Produced with Drew Vandenberg (Toro Y Moi, Faye Webster, S.G. Goodman) and recorded at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia, the album features a stellar supporting cast: Charles LaMont Garner (drums, percussion), Robby Handley (bass), Erik Olson (keyboards), Liam Duncan (banjo, dulcimer, guitar), Matt Stoessel (pedal steel, guitar), while Clyde handles both acoustic and electric guitars. Some will label the results Americana, other roots, and still others country. Whatever it’s called, however, it’s among the year’s best. Highly recommended.
The Old Grey Cat 