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"Numero 008: Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon"
With this release, the Numero Group has managed to achieve perfection. The music consists of 14 songs by as many artists, all folky females, whose homemade records were so limited that it’s a miracle that somebody was able to compile this many gems in one place. The crowning achievement for Numero is that they finally included in their deluxe booklet a page devoted to each artist with an accompanying image.
This collection reminds me of the No Watches.No Maps compilation released by Fat Cat back in 2001: it featured very good songs by acts who were rejected by the label for record deals. (It’s too bad in some cases as Fat Cat has since released a lot worse recordings by artists they did sign.) Many of these women had been known to send demos to folk-friendly independent and major labels, but none were ever picked up and very few continued to record much after their album noted here.
The production is simple, the instrumentation is small, and most often is only a voice accompanied by either a single guitar or single piano. The “MSG of sound recording” (delay on the voice) is all over this record, but it adds a certain creepy, haunting aesthetic to what was probably not intentional. Matching the eeriness of the music is the fates that seem to follow the artists. Jennie Perl’s “Maybe In Another Year” is one of those striking numbers, featuring only a tinkling piano behind the 16 year old’s voice, Perl’s current whereabouts are currently unknown. The following “Dedication” by Mary Perrin is another spooky one: a strong acoustic guitar gem, her vocal melody is almost Braizlian, it’s no wonder Perrin moved from her little town of Peoria Illinois to Los Angeles to pursue her music biz dreams (she died in 2003 in her sleep at 53). Ginny Reilly and David Maloney sound uncomfortably close to a precursor for Mazzy Star and Hope Sandoval solo material with their song “Wildman,” the duo, however, went on to record seven albums and known to still pair up and record together irregularly.
The inclusion of album covers is a fantastic addition, especially examples like Caroline Peyton’s cover for her album Mock Up, which was apparently done by the pressing plant’s janitor and Marj Snyder’s Let the Son Shine, which was allegedly designed to represent creation (with Marj oddly in the center). A lot of the artists here are young and primarily faith-based, like Becky Severson’s 59-second “A Special Path,” based on Jeremiah 6:16, which was the last recording she made (at the young age of 19); Judy Kelly’s “Window,” written for a friend’s wedding, and Linda Rich, who was discovered at a Inter-Varsity Missionary Conference in Urbana, Illinois.
Remastered again by Jeff Lipton, only a couple recordings suffer from degeneration, but for the most part the fidelity is strong and vivid. The arrangement is well done and not overdone, and at 47 minutes, it makes for a fantastic listen start to finish.
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