One of the mainstays in Portland’s thriving alt-country community, Susanna Weaver performs and records as Little Sue, with backing from a host of other local musicians. Crow, her second CD, is an endearing disc.
The 10 songs on Crow cover a number of styles and take in a variety of themes. Solid musicianship, varied instrumentation and excellent production by Weaver and Gregg Williams make the most of Weaver’s quavering twang. Her songwriting has improved by a country mile since her debut, 1997’s Chimneys and Fishes. Every one of these songs seems fresh and new, while at the same time somehow familiar.
The album kicks off with the medium-fast country shuffle of “Down to You.” The unusual combination of dobro and pedal steel, along with a Bakersfield-style chunking electric guitar and Weaver’s highly processed vocals, give the track a shiny ambience.
“Crow,” the title track, is a minor masterpiece, lush and hair-raising. The lyrics’ quiet promise of retribution and judgement is underscored by more unusual instrumentation: The use of both electric and bowed acoustic bass gives this song a melancholy, dirge-like quality. A percussion backdrop adds atmosphere as Weaver promises, “You’ll eat crow when the truth is learned/and you’ll have crow tonight./And I will be set free/from the lies you put on me/when the wrong was right.”
“Sweetie” is bit of loopy acid-folk, with a sly nod to the Beatles in their Yellow Submarine days. Languid fiddle alternates with boozy mariachi horns between the verses, and guitars and backing vocals get the underwater-microphone treatment. Weaver sounds like she definitely inhaled when she ends each verse with a very un-Bogie-like “Sing it agaaaiinnn, Sweetie.”
What’s a country album without a song about trains and another about the dangers of drink? Weaver has combined them on “Warning Trains,” all rumbling bass menace and Santana-like howling guitars. “Big mistakes sneak up on you/In the night” she practically whispers, and the plaintive wail of the pedal steel underlines the sentiment. Things lighten up considerably on the acoustic “In the Morning,” until you realize that this is the woman’s answer to the old ballad “Blackjack Davy.” She’s finally decided to leave him, but she’s not sure she’ll live through the night to get away: “In the morning, will I open my eyes?/In the morning when I rise.”
It’s not all gloom, though. “Ode to Lynnie Mae” bobbles along with a real old-timey feel in the instruments and the vocals; Weaver’s drawled “yup” at the end of each verse is a quaint and effective touch. And she lets us know in the final track, “These Days,” that the life of a country singer isn’t all tears and moping. Over a ragtime backing of clarinet, trumpet and tuba, she warbles “These days go fine without you darling…”
Add in Weaver’s homage to Harry Nilsson, and a thoughtful but self-descriptive ballad called “Down” and it’s plain she’s putting heart and soul into every song, and it’s a big heart.
The CD packaging is superb, with lots of touches that are artsy but not distracting. I especially like the way the printed lyrics are arranged to resemble a double-helix twist of DNA. Kudos to Cravedog for signing Little Sue in the first place, and for putting out a quality package like this.
(Cravedog, 1999)
