YOUNG GIRL BLUES
Johnny Winter
The mismatch between playing and singing occurs on several cuts. On “Queen Bee,” Foley’s version of Slim Harpo’s “King Bee” (minus the undulating bass line that characterizes most versions of the song) Foley crunches along in an admirable blues-rock vein, heavy on the metallic fire and light on the subtlety, though she does pull off a few attractive single-string echoes of Guitar Slim. But her voice, despite the obvious attempts to embellish it electronically, is weak, thin, and adolescent sounding, with little of the worldly knowingness essential to this kind of song. On “Mean Old Lonesome Train” (featuring the superb Kim Wilson on harp), Foley’s voice is so lacking in nuance or shading that it tends to dilute the music’s intensity: her playing is tinged with darkness and a grim determination as she promises that no man will “make a monkey out of me.”
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The centerpiece of the LP, though, is “Gone Blind,” a Foley original. Here she sings accompanied only by her guitar, and her voice takes on a plaintive, stark quality, backed by fuzzy, distorted picking that sounds like a street musician playing through a cheap amp. The intensity she achieves here is nothing short of frightening–you almost seem to see her soul being wrenched apart as she bends notes and claws away at her strings. Young Girl Blues is an impressive debut by an artist who may mature into a major talent.
Also sounding out of place is “Medicine Man,” which comes off as a 60s throwback–eerie, fuzzed-out modal intro; swirling aural effects and a vintage neo-psychedelic fusion of kaleidoscopic imagery (both musical and lyrical); and testosterone-drenched blues macho. It sounds more Marin County than Texas roadhouse, and it detracts from the straight-ahead intensity of the rest of the LP.
