Carolyn Wonderland – Truth Is
12 Tracks – 48 minutes
Carolyn Wonderland was born in Houston, Texas, growing up in a house full of musical instruments. She started making music at age six and had decided she would be a musician by age eight. After scratching her mother’s vintage Martin guitar by imitating Pete Townsend’s famous windmill stroke, she was forbidden to use a pick. As a result, she developed her distinctive fingerpicking style. She started performing in Houston clubs at age 15 and her band The Screaming Monkeys started touring as far as Utah and New York.
In 1999, Doug Sahm urged her to come to Austin where she became a Texas musical heroine. She has performed with many acclaimed artists including Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Doug Sahm, Buddy Guy and many more. in 2018, John Mayall chose Carolyn to be the guitarist in his band, The Blues Breakers, the first woman chosen for that honor, and following in the footsteps of previous iconic guitarists including Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, Coco Montoya, and Walter Trout. She toured with Mayall and recorded with him on his final two studio albums, Nobody Told Me and The Sun Is Shining Down. The latter album was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Carolyn’s solo recording career started in 2001 with the first of two independent releases, Alcohol and Salvation and Bloodless Revolution. In 2008, Roy Benson, a founder of Asleep at the Wheel, produced the first of four successive albums for her. In 2021, she joined Alligator Records and debuted her album, Tempting Fate, produced by Dave Alvin, famed guitarist for The Blasters and currently The Third Mind. Dave also produced this new album, co-wrote four songs with Carolyn for the album and plays guitar on those songs. The previous album won the Austin Music Award for Best Blues Artists and Best Guitarist, and she was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame. She has been nominated for the Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Award three times.
Bassist Naj Conklin and drummer Giovanni “Nooch” Carnuccio joins Carolyn and vast array of guest performers for ten original tracks and two covers. Her friend Shelley King provides harmony vocals on 8 tracks, and acoustic guitar on 6. Red Young also plays the B3 and piano on many tracks. The opening track “Sooner or Later” features Dave Alvin on guitar, Bukka Allen on piano and Kevin Lance on percussion. Carolyn’s lap steel burns up the song and her sharp Texas twang delivers a strong message with “The gift you’ve been given is in fact to keep on living to share your memories and pass the lessons along”. Marcia Ball and Ruthie Foster team up on backing vocals for the next two tracks. She proclaims “I Ain’t Going Back Again” “My will’s too strong to break or bend. Step aside or lend a hand”. The song immediately blends into the title song with Red Young’s B3 accenting the song as she tells “Truth is right there in the very air we breathe. So why is it so hard to believe it”.
She slows things down on “Let’s Play a Game” as she delivers a pointed message, “We’ve marched to the capitols. We’ve sang in the holler. Dined with the kings. And lo, Lord, how hard we’ve tried but peace without justice that’s just freedom denied.” “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard Again” gets a little Texas swing into the mix with Cindy Cashdollar on lap steel and a rollicking piano from Red as she tells “I work hard every day, so if I piss it all away. I’ve been whistlin’ past the graveyard all along”. Her guitar stands out on the song, and the song concludes with her actually whistling to its end. Henri Herbert guests on piano on “It Should Take” as she again offers words of wisdom as she acknowledges things that require patience and advises “Stop and plant some roses, honey. What’s your rush?”.
Bukka Allen adds piano and organ with Stuart Sullivan providing percussion on the first of two covers, “Wishful Thinking”, written by Greg Wood and Eddie Hawkins. The song starts with a quiet piano lead and Carloyn assumes a soft voice as he wistfully sings “I wish that everything that ever fell apart could come back together again exploding backwards into perfection but that’s just wishful thinking”. The second cover is The Band’s Richard Manuel’s “Orange Juice Blues” with Cindy and Carolyn trading leads and Ruthie and Marcia providing vocals with Marcia on piano. Dave again adds his guitar with Bukka Allen joining on piano and organ on “as Carolyn warns “You should never cross my friend with his “Tattoos as his Talisman”.
“Flowers In Bloom” is a slow waltz with Red’s piano and organ as Carolyn struggles with a relationship citing “You and your self-imposed burdens, me and my big mouth, I don’t suppose we read writing from the same walls, I doubt we’ll ever figure it out”. “Deepest Ocean Blue” has a Caribbean, reggae lilt to it as she says “Come take my hand. We can dance across the sands while music plays a moonlight serenade”. “Blues for Gene” is a tribute to Gene Taylor, a pianist friend of Carolyn who died during the 2022 big freeze and power failure in Texas. Gene played with the James Harman Band, was briefly a touring member of Canned Heat and played with The Fabulous Thunderbirds. This is a pure blues song with Henri Herbert absolutely killing it on piano and Carolyn letting her guitar sail through the song.
Having seen Carolyn playing with John Mayall and also as a solo performer, I can attest that she is definitely one of the best female guitarists around and holds her own amongst the men as well. It is obvious that Mayall only selected the best guitarists to play with him. Her emotional and sometimes driving vocals are also equal to every style of music with her songwriting offering elements challenging the listener and providing a stated truth for those of us on the sidelines to ponder.
