Ghalia Volt – Shout Sister Shout
12 tracks; 49 minutes
It is now six years since Ghalia Volt moved from her native Belgium to the USA. It has been a busy and varied period, starting in New Orleans with Mama’s Boys before heading to Mississippi where she recorded Mississippi Blend with local musicians like Watermelon Slim and Cedric Burnside. During Covid she reinvented herself as a one-woman band and toured anywhere she could play. This time around she recorded near the Joshua Tree in California. Working with producer David Catching at his Rancho De La Luna studio resulted in what Ghalia describes as a 70’s psychedelic sound, moving away somewhat from her previous style of Mississippi Hill Country and Delta blues. Catching adds occasional guitar parts but the core band is Ghalia on guitar and vocals, Danny Frankel on drums and Ben Allerman on keys.
The laid-back feel of the sessions shows mainly in Ghalia’s vocal style. With a slight accent and a lightly distorted vocal sound, the result is hypnotic on tracks like “Insomnia” with its Indian-style percussion or “Can’t Have It All” which builds slowly over Ghalia’s core riff. “No Happy Home” is a slide-driven tune that harks back to some of Ghalia’s earlier discs. There is also plenty of Rock here with tracks like opener “Every Cloud” pounding along with twin guitars over the drums and the organ taking the core solo. The dreamy vocals on “Changes” certainly take you back to the era of psychedelia, as do the strong drums and the sixties-sounding organ on “She’s Holding You Back”.
The title track has more of a blues feel with a chugging rhythm and Ghalia encouraging women to speak up for what they deserve, the heavily distorted wah-wah solo sounding slightly odd in the context of the song.”She’s Holding You Back” is a slide-driven romp with a stop-start rhythm, “Hop On A Ride” (a co-write with label mate Eddie 9V) name-checks places that Ghalia has visited or have influenced her musical tastes and features some exciting slide work while “Po’ Boy John” is a piano-led rave-up that closes the album with the story of an old guitar and where it may have been played.
Fans of Ghalia’s distinctive style will definitely want to add this one to their collection.
