in review / By Bryan Osper

The Beltane Sessions

While most of the songs included on this disk are the girls’ arrangements of traditional songs from around the world, there are two original tracks: Nola Pierce’s “Blackberry Wine” and Melody Walker’s “12-Bella,” the latter of which was the first original sung by the group and a song that has become a sort of theme song for the ladies who conceived it.

“12-Bella” speaks of the rhythms of the universe and the philosophy of the inevitable relationship of “3” against “4.” Here this idea is expressed through the poly-rhythmic dimensions of a 12/8 time signature and the imagery of the breakdown of all things “12” in our world, including the relationship of “three months to each season/four seasons in a year/how loud does the goddess have to whisper in your ear?” and their own analogy of the dichotomy of female/male relations. Profound stuff. Not to mention the harmonies and their execution on this track are spine-chillingly deep and powerful.

While there are many tracks that borrow from the rich heritage of the African Diaspora, a few trace the eastern European tradition (with harmonies so rich and complex that there is not room here to analyze them) and there is even a traditional Japanese song included on the album, as well as a couple of traditional American gospel tunes.

Lorenza Simmons brings us a chilling version of “Soon I Will Be Done,” a lament about the end of one’s life and the string of endless troubles that come with it, and the ascent into the after-life. It’s hard to listen to this track with dry eyes, especially when it comes to Nola’s verse, to which she brings a bluesy soulfulness that reaches right to the heart of the song and strips it down painfully yet blissfully. When it comes to singing the blues, there are many things that you can’t learn from studying traditional vocal techniques. This is to be expected in a music that is often sung by common people with no musical training, and Nola has certainly “unlearned” herself some deep bluesy rootsiness that never fails to leave me dripping with musical ecstasy.

At the end of the album Nola leaves us with a musical treat too sweet to spoil by telling about it here, suffice it to say that it is a classic tune by one of the most popular singers of all time, which has of course been stripped down and re-imagined through the potent vision of these five gifted women.

These goddesses are whispering, and I’m listening.

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