Blame Sally - Speeding Ticket and a Valentine

  by Lisa Torem

published: 10 / 9 / 2011

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Review

Blame Sally consists of four San Francisco Bay area women who, in the autumn of their lives, discovered their gifts collaboratively. They resonate with pitch-perfect harmonies and flaunt mastery of their respective instruments. Lead vocals are shared. After having collaborated with producer Lee Townsend on 'Night of 1000 Stars', two years ago, the quartet is back with the self-produced 'Speeding Ticket and a Valentine'. The lyrics frequently go deep, but even when they simply keep an even keel, those blended voices reign. Though Pam Delgado (drums), Renee Harcourt (guitar, mandolin, and banjo) Jeri Jones (guitar) and Monica Pasqual (keys and accordion) have faced the onset of MS and cancer, among themselves and their loved ones, they have forged ahead and created original songs that maximize their chops and provide an unwavering framework for their natural sounding vocals. ‘Bird in Hand’ is mere warm-up for the synergetic power chords and 1960s simmering harmonies that express polar opposites. Confessional ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ somberly exposes angst with flair. Ethereal strings soften the succinctly bawdy ‘Big Big Bed’. The cosmopolitan ‘Pajaros Sin Alas’ (Birds without Wings) sung in English and Espanol subtly recalls an out-of-the way French bistro. The more, straight-ahead ‘Throw me a Bone’ pleads: “I don’t want to compromise/I want to look in your eyes.” Throbbing post-punk ‘Countdown’ excels with Julie Wolf’s blazing Hammond B3. Renee Harcourt’s sizzling strings pump up this simple melody big time. ‘Wide Open Spaces’ has a super cool riff and bluesy harmonies, which connect the links of this “dead end chain.” There are even some shades of Fiona Apple. Pasqual’s ‘Take me there’ expresses wistful longing. Blame Sally blurs genres, but confidently displays vocal prowess.

Track Listing:-

1 Bird In Hand
2 Big Big Bed
3 Living Without You
4 Mona Lisa Smile
5 Pajaros Sin Alas
6 Throw Me A Bone
7 Back In The Saddle
8 Countdown
9 Wide Open Spaces
10 Take Me There