Music Monthly
June, 1995 Issue #129 Vol.12#6
By J. Doug Gill
Wendy Repass: The Coming of Age
Normally, when I sit down to write a review
for this page, a lot of thought goes into the introductory paragraph.
Spinning a few phrases, positive or negative, to entice the
reader to stick around for other the other couple hundred words.
In the case of Wendy Repass’ Chapter 1:
The Coming of Age, one word will suffice: Brilliant. Glorious.
Splendid. Stunning. Grand. Superb. Well, six words.
Simply put, this 13-song, acoustic goldmine
is chock full of vivid imagery, hypnotic instrumentation, and
alternatingly soothing and raucous vocals that add steroid-enhanced
muscle to this radiant collection.
Soft violin bedding handles melodies such
as "Trust My Heart" and "Glass Ceilings"
as if it were wearing gloves, and lyrics like "better to
hated than ignored" reveal a songwriter who is full of
cynicism as she is sentimentality. The sparse, intimate "Childhood
Dreams" is the kind of song that makes torch singers cry
and other composers green with envy, while "I Believe"
sounds as if it were born from the Indigo’s Amy and Emily. But
I won’t insult Repass with comparisons to her contemporaries,
as the disc tracks with a delightful consistency that pushes
it beyond familiarity.
As a wordsmith, Repass weaves magic. You
can’t help but empathize with the veiled bitterness of "Mud
and Tears" and you can’t help but root for her when she
swears off her abusers by showing contempt for them ("you
got eyes but you can’t see that something is going to change").
And just to rock the boat a little, Repass straps on a electric
guitar, surrounds herself with a tight little bass/drum combo,
and the trio blow the roof off the dump with a fiery little
rocker called "Tiger Wakes". I could talk about this
woman all day.
In all, Chapter 1 stumbles only once: the
alternatingly talk-sing-talk pattern of "Janty", but
even that tune is rescued by a homespun narrative and tasty
guitar/banjo interplay. The rest of the effort is a series of
snapshots, some taken from a wide-angle and some with a telephoto,
and they reflect multiple layers of engaging musicality and
a lifetime worth of memories.
"Got my words, my songs, my guitar;
I’ll go far," Wendy Repass states emphatically in "Trust
My Heart", and she won’t get any argument from me.
