Shannon CURFMAN - Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions 1999

Shannon CURFMAN - Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions 1999

Blues

What is it about Fargo, North Dakota? The town that gave us Jonny Lang, young guitar-slinger of the 1990s, now presents Shannon Curfman... young guitar-slinger of the 1990s. Rereleased on Arista Records, Curfman's debut, Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions was recorded when the guitarist was only 13. But you'd never guess it by listening to her play; although her style doesn't have the distinctive stamp that will come with experience, she's more than competent. And her singing voice sounds like it belongs to someone twice her age. Though the comparisons to Bonnie Raitt may be a bit premature, Curfman's got just as much potential as any of the other young blues-rockers littering the landscape these days, if not more. It'll be most worthwhile to hear how she develops; Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions may well be the debut of the next queen of blues guitar.
By Genevieve Williams. AMG.
**
It's easy to call Shannon Curfman the female equivalent of such hot-shot guitar-slingers as Jonny Lang, especially since Lang not only appears on her debut Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions, he co-wrote a few songs with her as well. It is true that Curfman does play modern blues-rock that recall Lang's, but it's not a direct copy, it's simply informed by the same influences. She has her own voice, one that's a little bolder and gutsier than Lang's. Throughout the record, her singing is impassioned and the playing is fiery with blistering fretwork, a top-notch debut. She sings with more conviction and plays guitar with the tone and tastefulness of someone twice her age, but she's also a fine songwriter. Highlights include a self-penned blues strut, "Few and Far Between," in which she lets her voice range from sweet to gruff and the Allman Brothers-influenced "Love Me Like That". When she growls her way through "Playing With Fire," a gritty retelling of the classic "bluesman sells soul for unearthly ability" legend, you had to wonder whether she was singing from first-hand experience, connecting the lines between Robert Johnson and Jimi Hendrix. The Eric Clapton-like love ballad "If You Change Your Mind" is also very good. But her style is not flashy or self-indulgent. There's an economy to her brilliant but succinct runs around the fret board. In the sassy "I'm Coming Home." so eerily mature is her delivery that she can pull off the line "I'm headin' down the interstate, takin' back my real estate" without reminding you she's still a few years away from getting her driver's license. If you like the blues/rock of Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, you'll LOVE this CD!
**
Shannon Curfman- (Vocals, Guitar);
Kevin Bowe- (Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Mandolin, Background Vocals);
Jack Holder- (Acoustic & Electric Guitars);
Randy Casey- (Guitar, Background Vocals);
Jonny Lang, David Grissom- (Guitar);
Andy Dee- (Lap Steel Guitar);
Pat Hayes- (Harp);
Bruce McCabe- (Piano);
Ricky Peterson- (Keyboards, Background Vocals);
Paul Peterson- (Bass);
Michael Bland, Kenny Aronoff- (Drums);
Dave Anania- (Percussion);
John Fields- (Loops);
Sonny Thompson, Debbie Duncan, Margaret Cox, Cynthia Johnson, Tim Mahoney- (Background Vocals).
**
01. Few and Far Between
02. No Riders
03. True Friends
04. If You Change Your Mind
05. Love Me Like That
06. Playing with Fire
07. I Don't Make Promises (I Can't Break)
08. Hard to Make a Stand
09. Weight
10. Never Enough
11. I'm Coming Home
**
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