Lizzie West
& the White Buffalo
I Pledge Allegiance to Myself
Appleseed Recordings 1094
avaliable on amazon
Lizzie West’s voice is both secure, relaxed and full of strength and conviction, and rattling and unsettling; just as her songs are both comfortable and at the same time so startling in either content or delivery that you have no choice but to sit up and take notice. If you don’t want to think about things, if you have a disdain for strong women who speak their mind, frankly, then she is going to knock you on your hind most portion. This disc of 14 songs, she wrote/co-wrote all but 3 (including America The Beautiful but did write the Pledge that it contains) is done in collaboration with Anthony Kieraldo, AKA The White Buffalo. He contributes some vocals, piano, guitar, ashiko, bass, organ, percussion and some producing, as well as support that is necessary in a project like this. This disc radiates an inner strength and power that separates it from the run of the mill ordinary that is more than just her unusually wavery voice, strong convictions, and
strength and depths of the songs she has written, it is that intangible that can’t be touched or duplicated. Listen to what she does with the classic Bob Marley/Winston MacIntosh composition, “Get Up, Stand Up,” she so wraps herself into it that it becomes a Lizzie West piece. She does the same with Steve Goodman’s, “City of New Orleans,” it isn’t that she changes the song, but uses her delivery and voice texture to add new layers to the song. This is an artist that has so much to offer to those who come into this with an open mind and heart. Someone we will hear from in one way or another for a long time to come.