Tres Chicas - Sweetwater

by Malcolm Carter

published: 15 / 8 / 2004

Label: Yep Roc
Format: CD

First album in five years from alt. country supergroup Tres Chicas, which includes in its line up ex-Whiskeytown member Caitlin Cary and former Hazeldine singer Tonya Lamm, and that proves to have been very much worth the wait

Review

I picked up this album for two reasons; the first being one of Tres Chicas is ex-Whiskeytown member Caitlin Cary who, after releasing two outstanding solo albums, has established that she could well be the biggest talent to emerge from that band. The other reason is that the album is on the Yep Roc label and with their current crop of releases (Ken Stringfellow, Chris Stamey, Amy Farris and Dave Alvin) they are incapable of putting a foot wrong these days. And from the first few sounds from the first song, title track ‘Sweetwater’ it’s obvious I’ve not wasted my time nor money. Apart from Caitlin the other two main players in the band are Tonya Lamm from the criminally ignored (for the most part anyway) Hazeldine who released four albums of desert infused roots rock music and Lynn Blakey. Confession time; Lynn Blakey is a new name to me, I was unaware that she was once a member of Let’s Active, and she now fronts a band called Glory Fountain, again a new name to this writer. But with the outstanding title track and the equally as good second track on the album, ‘Heartbeat’, both coming solely from the pen of Ms. Blakey the name is one to watch and to check out. The three cover versions on this album are telling; George Jones, Loretta Lynn and Lucinda Williams; it’s an album whose roots are firmly planted in that country soil. But when the seven band originals shine even brighter than those covers (even when marvellous things are done with the Lucinda Williams cover ‘Am I Too Blue?) then it’s obvious what we have here is an outstanding debut, even though the band first started playing together five years ago. According to the short but informative liner notes, the trio “ keep coming back to each other for one simple reason ; they’ve never sounded better than they do with each other than in the Chicas.” Reading that before I heard the album and considering that to these ears Caitlin Cary’s solo albums are two of the best from the last couple of years, I thought that was a bold statement to make. But it’s true; the trio really do their best work together. Their vocals are what hit you first, pure and unaffected, just as affecting individually (just check out Lynn Blakey’s vocals on the title track) as they are when the stunning harmonies come in. And that’s what makes the album shine out in an already overcrowded genre. Those harmonies. A blindingly obvious comparison would be the Parton, Ronstadt and Harris ‘Trio’ albums. On some songs this wouldn’t be far off. But, and get this, song for song, this collection beats those albums into a corner. There’s more of a rock flavour (which could be due, in part, to the tight and uncluttered production by Chris Stamey) to these country / folk songs and that’s what is going to make it appeal to a wider audience. This band is, however, not content with having voices which mesh so well together to produce those gorgeous harmonies; their other forte is in writing lyrics. On the only song which is a co- write between all three band members, ‘When Was The Last Time’, listen to these girls singing in glorious harmony “When was the last time you felt good in your skin, when was the last time you let somebody in”, and feel your heart skip a beat. Or try the Tonya Lamm co-write (with presumably Shawn Barton from Hazeldine) ‘Foot Of The Bed’, a tale of lost innocence, “you took one part of me, it’s the only piece that I really need” or “Dress tight as skin, invitation to sin, does the Lord look at women that way?” with Caitlin Cary’s violin weeping away it’s another heartbreaking example of their combined talents. In what seems like another lifetime but was, in fact, 1989 (okay, another lifetime) another female trio released their debut album. The band was called Two Nice Girls and featured Gretchen Phillips as one of its members. Their album also covered this folky/country/roots sound and included a couple of covers (one an inspired mixing of Lou Reed’s ‘Sweet Jane’ with Joan Armatrading’s ‘Love and Affection’) and that also had this "we’re making this because we’re friends and sound so damn good together" attitude to it. Sadly, although at least some of the members went on to greater acclaim, that album was, to my knowledge, the only one to feature all its three singers together and they never reached those heights again in their solo work. We can only hope that Tres Chicas don’t go that way and don’t leave it another 5 years before following up this album. As excellent as their work is away from each other something happens when they sing together, something which we don’t hear every day, and we should. A milestone recording, no less.

Track Listing:-

1 Sweetwater
2 Heartbeat
3 Foot of the Bed
4 Deep as Your Pocket
5 Am I Too Blue
6 Desire
7 When You Sleep
8 When Was the Last
9 In a While
10 Take the Devil Out