- Mindy Smith
One Moment More
Vanguard 79736-2
- by Bonny Holder
 I
got a package in the mail a couple of weeks ago from Rockzilla
hisownself. Full of CDs. CDs by young women I've never
heard of. There's a baker's dozen. Where to start?
The CDs lay in a row across the kitchen table, like tiles.
They all look alike. The covers are all head shots. Most of
the girls look sulky. Most of them have large foreheads, some
covered with bangs. Most of them are singing original compositions,
often with "love" and "leave" and "missing
you" in the song titles.
Nashville's Mindy Smith's One Moment More is no more
distinguished than any of the other covers it shows a young,
serious, sepia face framed by the kind of straight, hippy-hair
that one pretty much can't wear after 30.
But I remember Mindy's delicate, crystalline version of "Jolene"
off the Just Because I'm A Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton
CD. It blew everybody else's song right off the disk for me.
I got online, and googled Mindy Smith. I'm not going to attribute
this if you're curious, Ask Jeeves but I read something
that was purported to be Ms. Smith's take on the song.
In the article, she said that she had to really use her imagination
to get into the part of the woman begging the beautiful Jolene
to turn her back to the singer's beloved, one of the poignant
lyrics including "please don't take him just because you
can."
Ms. Smith said that she, personally, had never been in a position
to feel so vulnerable. She had to imagine begging someone,
being in that position of humility, to help her save an insecure
relationship, the only one she feels she will ever have. She
had to humble herself to get into the song, and what a job she
does! "Jolene" is the hidden 12th track on the CD.
Remind anybody of Fairport Convention in the Sandy Denny days?
Yup, that's Dolly herself singing in the background. (And ace
guitarist Bryan Sutton on guitar, and Viktor Krauss on bass.)
Smith's self-confidence comes across in every track, and that
is a very attractive vocal quality. But there are a couple
of stand-out cuts. One is "Come To Jesus," an achingly
sincere gospel number with a chilling little twist. Not that
Mindy Smith is exactly the Handsome Family, but there is a little
Wednesday Adams lurking here:
Oh my baby, when you're cryin'
Never hide your face from me.
I have conqurered hell and driven out the demons
I have come with the light to set you free.
In "Raggedy Ann," another self-penned song (she
wrote them all except "Jolene,") she describes herself
as a tattered rag doll, falling apart at the seams.
But it's in "Train Song" that Smith's voice and
her lyrics come together in a truly clever way:
I've been listening for those metal wheels
To come scraping across that old rusty track.
And I'm just wondering, I need to ask
Is my sweet man on that train?
She's all angels and innocence.
Everything inside me is aching for you now.
Every minute given, I'm just waiting for your love.
I'm just wondering, I need to ask
Is my sweet man on his way?
Then, suddenly, our little Norman Rockwell morphs into Stephen
King.
And I've been crying, trying to make sense
of all this shit he left me to tend.
And I'm just wondering, I'll ask again,
Is my sweet man on that train?
You'll hear a little Patty Griffin here, and a little Alison
Krauss, but Mindy Smith is young and still influenced. She's
the most interesting women singer I've heard all spring. Don't
be fooled by what sounds simple at first listen; this is a tight,
complex album. I think she has a great possibility of commercial
success, and I don't hardly say that about anybody.
www.mindysmith.net
You can contact Bonny Holder at bonny-at-rockzilla.net
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