Search - Wyrd Sisters :: Wholly

Awesome

Steven R. McEvoy | Canada | 05/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The long-awaited and much-anticipated fourth CD and fifth album from the Wyrd Sisters is finally widely available. The Wyrd Sisters are known for their deep harmonies, passionate lyrics, and penetrating music. Historically their songs have been about violence against women, politics, clear cutting, the Montreal Massacre... and other political issues. This album is a turning point into the internal; they state that as their audience has changed so has the music. There is a 'spiritual quester' feel to this album - a searching and a struggling. This CD captures the events in the lives of the band members and the sentiment of the audience as it ages, matures, and moves towards inward change as the means for external change.



Every one of the 12 songs on the CD is immensely enjoyable. From the opening track Mary (Wholly) which states:

"Mary, I think you've got something to say

but what kind of language will you wrap your tongue around

when 2000 years have worn you away?

in your belly

in your breast

where you work

where you rest

when you come, when you leave

holy

we believe..."

a song about Mary the mother of Jesus and if she has meaning today, to the incredibly humorous final track Faucet about a woman's love with her tub fixtures which starts with:

"my sexual preference is my bath tub faucet

you might say that I'm in a water closet

my tank is too small and my water bill is high

but my faucet and I get happily by

faucet and I

bye bye bye

I'm a hydrasexual..."

Yet my favourite must be The One That Never Was with guest vocalist John Schritt, who with lead vocalist Kim Baryluk, produces an incredible piece sung in counter point.



The album is a great addition to the Wyrd Sisters Canon and will be fun for a fan of folk, blues, or a jazzy kind of music. This is a great Canadian trio which has given of themelves, their life and struggles in their music, and the lyrics and power of the vocals will speak to almost any listener. So give it a listen or take a journey through the Wyrd Sisters repertoire, begin the voyage with Leave a Little Light, then journey Inside the Dreaming, next listen to the Raw Voice, after that try some Sin and Other Salvations and finish with Wholly.



(First Published in Imprint 2008-05-30.)"