This album is so good we forgot to review it; we played it and played and got to know it so well we thought we’d written about, but we never did. It is, as one might expect, really good.

Mary James is basically a country singer, leading on her banjo, but if you can tolerate even a smidgeon of country, you should give this a listen. The humour and variation gives a feel of what her live show must be like, too.

The album opens with Cranberry Gown, a strong but fairly typical country song, with Mary on vocals, guitar and banjo, the story of a woman who “grew tired of feeling so beat down” and “recalled the time she owned a cranberry gown”, so she goes to a thrift shop and buys herself pretty dresses so that in future “In everyday clothes of maybe black or brown / Her heart is still wearing the cranberry gown”.

Bridge Out changes tack and is an amusing tale of life on the road, sung with her brother Frank (wo played 12-string on the first track and shows off his baritone range in this), “Are you ready to go? / Booked a four-hour show / Just twelve hundred miles away,” they begin optimistically. Frank sounds like he should be playing a pessimistic priest on Father Ted as the car lumbers up hills but speeds like a rackety rocket down the other side, the banjo and guitar speeding up and slowing down to reflect the speed. In the humour is a serious note, “Oh it’s great to be a touring musician … Will we die on the way? / Will there be any pay? / Will there be any recognition?”

Later on comes Big Tour Bus, a song she likes so much it was on an earlier album, again about the hard not-so-funny life of a solo touring female musician: “I’ll exit the bar with my pepper-spray gun … Another sleep in the car night but this time I’ll park / My feet on the dash, my head on the seat, a musician’s life sure is sweet”. The big tour bus is what she dreams of.

Merry Eyes is a banjo instrumental solo and leads nicely into No Man’s Land, a muscular and lively roots tune of a trailblazer carving out a life in the wild, “Birds fly, shadows rush by, there’s movement behind each stone / I’m lonely in name only, for I’ve never been alone”. It’s a long way from the sedate opener. (Later, Butterfly Sky lets Mary show off her violin chops).

A Kiss Can Hide Two Faces is a sultry song with a Spanish/Latin tango feel, and a nice Gypsy jazz violin solo, and the lyrics commenting that only a “two-faced rattlesnake would fake / Would fake sweet embraces”. Bette, Come Back has also got an exotic feel, “Bette should be back by now / She’s never been this late before / Did she get lost, get hurt, somehow” opens the song, the punchline being that Bette finally returns and “walked across his chest … licked his cheek and began to purr”.

Closer Clouds Roll By is more standard pop tune, with a pleasant Joni Mitchell feel.

An excellent album, with world class playing, quality lyrics and some humour.
Portrait of A Woman (Part I) is out on Woodrock Records (WDRK-4303).
This album is so good we forgot to review it; we played it and played and got to know it so well we thought we’d written about, but we never did. It is, as one might expect, really good.

Mary James is basically a country singer, leading on her banjo, but if you can tolerate even a smidgeon of country, you should give this a listen. The humour and variation gives a feel of what her live show must be like, too.

The album opens with Cranberry Gown, a strong but fairly typical country song, with Mary on vocals, guitar and banjo, the story of a woman who “grew tired of feeling so beat down” and “recalled the time she owned a cranberry gown”, so she goes to a thrift shop and buys herself pretty dresses so that in future “In everyday clothes of maybe black or brown / Her heart is still wearing the cranberry gown”.

Bridge Out changes tack and is an amusing tale of life on the road, sung with her brother Frank (wo played 12-string on the first track and shows off his baritone range in this), “Are you ready to go? / Booked a four-hour show / Just twelve hundred miles away,” they begin optimistically. Frank sounds like he should be playing a pessimistic priest on Father Ted as the car lumbers up hills but speeds like a rackety rocket down the other side, the banjo and guitar speeding up and slowing down to reflect the speed. In the humour is a serious note, “Oh it’s great to be a touring musician … Will we die on the way? / Will there be any pay? / Will there be any recognition?”

Later on comes Big Tour Bus, a song she likes so much it was on an earlier album, again about the hard not-so-funny life of a solo touring female musician: “I’ll exit the bar with my pepper-spray gun … Another sleep in the car night but this time I’ll park / My feet on the dash, my head on the seat, a musician’s life sure is sweet”. The big tour bus is what she dreams of.

Merry Eyes is a banjo instrumental solo and leads nicely into No Man’s Land, a muscular and lively roots tune of a trailblazer carving out a life in the wild, “Birds fly, shadows rush by, there’s movement behind each stone / I’m lonely in name only, for I’ve never been alone”. It’s a long way from the sedate opener. (Later, Butterfly Sky lets Mary show off her violin chops).

A Kiss Can Hide Two Faces is a sultry song with a Spanish/Latin tango feel, and a nice Gypsy jazz violin solo, and the lyrics commenting that only a “two-faced rattlesnake would fake / Would fake sweet embraces”. Bette, Come Back has also got an exotic feel, “Bette should be back by now / She’s never been this late before / Did she get lost, get hurt, somehow” opens the song, the punchline being that Bette finally returns and “walked across his chest … licked his cheek and began to purr”.

Closer Clouds Roll By is more standard pop tune, with a pleasant Joni Mitchell feel.

An excellent album, with world class playing, quality lyrics and some humour.
Portrait of A Woman (Part I) is out on Woodrock Records (WDRK-4303).

Get on your big tour bus and buy this here