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Michelle Malone: Sugarfoot "The rough-and-tumble Malone embraces her inner Keith Richards while churning up those Southern roots with the vigor of Lucinda Williams. 4/5." --Playboy "...2003's hands-down best Americana release from a female singer-songwriter."--HARP "Raucous and jubilant...somewhere between Lucinda Williams and Shelby Lynne comes Michelle Malone alternating between soulful ballads and rowdy, riffy blasters."--Rolling Stone.com She has the soul of a bluesman, the heart of a folk singer, and the guts of a rock and roll star all wrapped up in one fiery bad ass.”--Nashville Rage "Malone's lyric's ripple with Dylan-ish imagery and a fierce will
to survive." --Mademoiselle Armed with a bottleneck slide, blues harmonica, and her signature gut-wrenching vocals, Moanin' Michelle Malone is having so much fun these days that she can’t help but shake her sugarfoot. Malone was born in the dirty south and grew up listening to her mother sing in the church choir every Sunday. When it came time to craft her own sound, she took those religious roots, blended in enough rock and soul to keep the devil satisfied, and came up with her 9th studio CD, Sugarfoot. It's a high-spirited stripped down blend of rootsy acoustic slide, gritty electric blues and explosive vocals - rock with just enough blues edge to get the medicine down. Sugarfoot sounds like the lost recordings of Bonnie Raitt and the Rolling Stones meeting up in Susan Tedeschi's garage for a late night jam session. And as is usually the case with Malone, the disc is an experience best enjoyed at high volume. "I wanted to make a fun record, one that could help me escape the doldrums of adult reality - like bills and breakups and other necessary evils," she says laughing. "Instead of diving into the deep end of the river, I decided just to romp around in the creek for a while... splashing around in the shallow end, you know, so I wouldn't spill my cocktail." Songs such as "Tighten up the Springs," "Rooster 44," and "Traveling and Unraveling" highlight Malone's devil may care attitude and her slide guitar, which is becoming more and more of a signature for her. "I'm having a good time with it," she says. "Since I picked up the slide, I feel freer, I'm having more fun." Malone plays all the guitar, blues harp, and mandolin on the new disc. But while the Sugarfoot may be loose, it’s not hollow. She painfully sings on the soulful "Where Is The Love": "Love is like a stray rebellious bird / Call it and you'll never hear a word / It's not the feather flutter sound / It's just the wind swirling around." In keeping with her rough and tumble attitude, Malone averages over
200 days a year on the road, sharing stages and tours with artists from
ZZ Top to Joan Jett, the Indigo Girls and Johnny Winter. Though her previous
releases have earned her critical acclaim on many "Best Of" lists,
she is known for her live set, where she can make the biggest venues
seem as cozy as a camp fire, and an intimate venue feel like the center
of the universe. Sugarfoot comes as close to capturing her raw spontaneity
and grand, dirty, low-down power as anything to date. Michelle Malone
- Stompin' at the Gates of Eden
That old R&B song with the lyric "Devil or Angel, what will she be?" always comes to mind when I think about the talented Michelle Malone. Being fortunate to have been a witness to her remarkable journey in the music business by accidentally being at the same show that Arista Records saw in 1989. MM was barely out of high school, yet she wowed Mr. Bars and Star maker himself, Clive Davis, who took a personal interest in what he thought would be his next major diva. Well, he got the temperament and the talent right, but this classy lassie from Atlanta felt more akin to Georgia Rock Icons like the Allman Brothers and The Georgia Satellites, or Otis Redding and Blind Willie McTell, than she did to La Whitney etc...Malone has the chops, but this guitar "babe" just wanted to rock with her boys in Drag the River. The dream deal became a behind the music nightmare. MM put her boots on and just kept walking. So, was this an angel or the devil in disguise at work? Unlike the rumor about Robert Johnson, she did save her soul. Back in Atlanta, she threw her arms around her most loyal friend, her Hamer Duotone guitar, which never left her side again. She felt at home throwing down with her Angel friends, the Indigo Girls - she actually became a "temp" girl when they took to the road. MM plays best when the boys accept her as a musician and not just that "chick" singer. Michelle Malone should have been right up there with those hippie, crunchy, rootsy groups. But the boys' room was one stall short when it came to letting a "lady" - particularly a "lady" with the seductive licks and sultry looks of Michelle Malone - seize the stage. Defiantly she simply flipped her hips, licked her lips, and moved forward remaining ever faithful to her guitar and main sqeeze, Jezebel, vowing once and for all to show the world just who really is the Chattahootchie Guitar Queen. That is until Michelle's muse told her it was time to bring the Graham Parson's "thang" out in her music, and she took off on what seemed like 1001 nights of brainstorming the juke joints and beer halls of America. Her ax stayed loyal and her band disciplined. As Band De Soleil, they recorded a darker version of heartbreak that the Greivous Angel would ever have dreamed of playing. Moanin' Malone, (a nickname that was given to her by blues guitarust Albert King upon hearing her sing) found herself walking down the roughneck road of Steve Earle and Marianne Faithful after the fall. It took MM traveling the backwoods of the US to discover how the Angel and the Devil mesh into one person in order to make one divinely sweaty sound. MM finally learned home is where the heart is. Her new record, Stompin' Ground (Daemon Records/SBS Records), creates the perfect platform for the acoustic angel to meet the wicked Salome. It's stripped down and cranked up like a chopped up hot rod in a NASCAR final heat, oozing passionate rocking beats at its juicy core. Along with her band, The Low Down Georgia Revue (Jonny Daly from Drag The River is back on guitar, while Lee Kennedy on bass and Linda Bolley on drums lay down the backbeat), Stompin' Ground was recorded in Atlanta at the Snack N Shack, a one room shot gun shack that is rumored to have once been home to Atlanta bootleggers. MM opens the CD sliding her way around the bottleneck guitar and singing about returning to the South for solace when she gets down and out, and closes it singing, "Here comes you shadow chasing after you". From beginning to end, you get the feeling that after all her barnstorming struggles and boot-stomping victories, Malone has hit paydirt in the music and in herself. Stompin' Ground finds MM at the peak of her talent - Patsy Cline meets The Georgia Satellites - part smoldering angel, part devil-may-care scorcher, but all Moanin' Malone. The Chattahootchie Guitar Queen has finally found her voice! Hello Sheryl, Hello Chrissie, Hello Lucinda, your baby sister in Rock is all grown up... Please make room on the main stage, MM is back for keeps! --Jim Fouratt, 5/28/03 NYC |