Trixie Whitley – Fourth Corner

One of my favorite albums of 2010 was Black Dub (eponymous) which introduced me to the soulful voice of Trixie Whitley.  Black Dub is a Daniel Lanois (producer of U2, Dylan, Peter Gabriel, etc,) inspired collaboration that mixes dub, blues, soul and rock.  I have always loved Lanois production work – it atmospheric, yet epic.  His solo work has been a mixed bag for me and I came to Black Dub assuming the worst (AKA weird), but fortunately Trixie Whitley popped out as a unique flavor in Lanois’ sonic gumbo. Lanois is the consummate collaborator and with Trixie he had the perfect muse to inpire him.

Here was an artist I wanted to hear more from.  Who was this young woman?  Turns out she is singer-songwriter-guitarist Chris Whitley’s daughter.  I was gaga over Chris Whitley’s debut, Living with the Law (1991), back in the early 90s.  That album was recorded in Lanois’ home studio (although not produced by Lanois).  Interesting connection.

I was very excited to see Trixie Whitley release what I thought was her debut – turns out it is her fourth (she has 3 EPs).  Musically it has a similar feel as the Black Dub album, but it is more of a conventionally pop album and flaunts Trixie’ pop diva pipes.  However you are not going to confuse this with Adele, Joss Stone or Alicia Keys – this is much more off-center, yet not deliberately quirky like Fiona Apple.

I find this music indescribably good and defer to the sample below to allow the music to speak for itself.  Please give this a listen – this is one of the best new releases of the first quarter of 2013.