PATRICIA VONNE – Top Of The Mountain (MIG 20182 CD)

Top Of The MountainPatricia Vonne releases Top Of The Mountain, her seventh album on March 23rd. It’s got a variety of styles, which is both its strength and weakness. At times, it’s a little way from the kind of music that is at the core of folking.com but I’ve enjoyed playing the album, which has an energy to it that I imagine makes Vonne and her band a great live act.

Vonne comes from San Antonio and describes herself as ninth generation Tejana. Top Of The Mountain reflects the mix of influences that she has grown with: rock, folk, flamenco, bilingual tex-mex, Latin, and predominantly has a rock band sound behind the songs. The opening track ‘Citadel’ has an air of late 80’s/early 90’s rock; the second track ‘City is Alive’ has a dirty grunge lead guitar to reflect the lyrics; ‘Illuminaria’ is sung in Spanish to another lively rock beat with lead played not just on the high notes, but also with occasional bass lead a la Duane Eddy; the title track is so catchy I’ve struggled to get it out of my head; ‘Lil Lobo’ will probably have audiences dancing in the clubs to its heavy beat. See what I mean about the album? – it’s great fun but it’s not traditional folk or folk-rock.

There are elements of Americana, though – particularly since the next track reminded me to keep to a wider understanding of the Americana genre. Madre de Perla is a flamenco-esque tribute to Vonne’s mother (the title translates as mother of pearl) and nudged me to remember that the Spanish heritage is as much a part of Americana as other traditions.

The video link below takes you to ‘Tidal Wave’; it’s less than a minute but have a flick through the other videos on the page and you’ll get a feel for Vonne’s energy and the strong melodies of her songs. The wildly rocking ‘Graceland Trip’ (also on the video page) and ‘Lekker Ding’ (hottie/sexything according to the urban dictionary – though you don’t need to know this, just listen to the delivery) draw more on a rock’n’roll tradition.

‘Western Blood’ is an instrumental somewhere between the music for a Clint Eastwood western and The Shadows ‘Apache’ and it works really well. ‘Concion de la Boda’ (Wedding Song) draws more on European traditional music roots for its arrangement. The album closes with the quieter ‘God’s Hands’ and ‘Stop The Madness’, where Vonne’s vocal is thoughtful but still a delight.

It’s been great to listen to Top Of The Mountain. The album’s strength is in the vitality of Vonne and her band – and, hence, I’d like to see them live – as well as the range of musical traditions it draws on. While I’ve enjoyed the range of influences, the diversity also makes it feel a bit more like a collection of singles. Maybe in the days of playlists and shuffled music that doesn’t matter, not least because there’d be some instantly engaging singles amongst them.

Vonne is on tour, if not the UK, from April 5th:

Mike Wistow

Artist’s website: http://patriciavonne.com

‘Red Hot Heart’ live: