Debris

Billboard (p.29) - "There's no studio trickery on 'Debris,' no overdone guitar sounds or heavy-handed production. Just Malone, her band, her voice...and her songs, charming in their honesty and simplicity."

Michelle Malone has been making hard-edged albums that combine blues, folk, rock, and country music for more than 20 years, but still remains criminally underrated as an artist. With a few exceptions, Debris is a blues-rock outing delivered with her trademark gritty vocals, solid guitar work, and a handpicked band that includes guitarist Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crow), keyboard player Tony Reyes (Gwen Stefani), longtime collaborator Phil Skipper on bass, and Dave Anthony (Butch Walker, Ike) on drums. Nick DiDia (Bruce Springsteen, the Black Crowes, Train) produces with a light hand to keep the sound raw and dirty. "Marked" sounds like a Rolling Stones outtake and likens breaking up to a car crash or drive-by shooting; Malone's vulnerable vocal underscores the song's desolate feel. "Feather in a Hurricane" is tougher, with noisy slide guitar complementing Malone's snarky delivery. "Restraining Order Blues" bounces in on a Bo Diddley beat; Malone recites all the damage she's done to her ex's property and possessions with a cynical smirk in her voice and celebrates her acting out, even as she's cuffed and put into a police car. "Weed and Wine" recalls the happier days of a relationship behind a sadder but wiser beat and a wistful organ that sounds like the whistling of a far off freight train promising rescue and redemption. "Chattahoochee Boogaloo" is a tough bluesy country song about wild girls sneaking out of the bedroom windows on summer nights to explore the mysteries of womanhood, marked by stinging slide guitar and Malone's crooning vocal. Malone breaks the frame with "14th Street and Mars" an R&B ballad with a '60s flavor and an outstanding vocal, and "Candle for the Lonely," a lament delivered with acoustic guitar and subtle melancholy country piano from Reyes. ~ j. poet