She wails like the devil’s on her tail, but Michelle Malone isn’t waiting for Satan to catch up before she catches fire. Her ninth studio album may be dubbed Sugarfoot, but the fact is it’s her sure step that puts the peddle-to-the-metal in this outpouring of bottleneck blues and pure Southern boogie. Suffice it to say Malone’s journeyman sensibilities find her veering toward Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi territory, but in truth, her sassy defiance and steamy attitude brings a soulful, bluesier Melissa Etheridge to mind. The twanging, thumping rhythm of “Tighten up the Springs,� the swampy shuffle that propels “Soul Chicken� and the ringing slide guitar that tears through “Rooster� and “Traveling And Unraveling� reflect some tangled rural roots, but it’s Malone’s gritty, emotive vocals and sinewy arrangements that most emphatically define her. While most of the songs deal in essential emotions -- love, loss and disappointment -- “Down� offers a not-so-subtle political jab (“The men who are running our country are running it into the ground.�) Malone pulls no punches, and if the prez and his cronies don’t take note, it’s likely there are plenty of newfound fans that will.
Lee Zimmerman
Release date: October 10, 2006
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