Carolyn Wonderland Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
On her seventh album, Texas blues singer/guitarist Carolyn Wonderland teams with Ray Benson, leader of Asleep at the Wheel, who serves as her producer, co-writer on two songs, backup guitarist, and the head of her record label, Bismeaux Productions. Benson seems to have just let Wonderland be herself, and that results in a varied collection that begins by emphasizing her blues-rock bona fides on the lap steel workout "Misunderstood" and ends with the ballad "Feed Me to the Lions," on which she is accompanied by the Tosca String Quartet. In between, there is plenty of room for her tasty, sometimes ferocious guitar playing on both originals and such covers as a version of the Johnny Winter signature song "Still Alive and Well." She has a powerful, rhythmic voice, her phrasing, if not her timbre, sometimes recalling Janis Joplin's, perhaps because they come from the same part of the world. While the rockers clearly provide a comfort zone for her, Wonderland seems equally at home on calmer material, notably the slow blues "Bad Girl Blues" and "I Don't Want to Fall for You," which sounds like a lost song from the days of Tin Pan Alley. Such versatility serves her well and only whets the appetite for her next guitar solo. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Alcohol and Salvation'
Release Date 1/1/2001
Tracks 14
Label Mix-O-Rama
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Bursting with Flavor'
Release Date 3/11/1997
Tracks 12
Label Justice
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Bursting With Flavor is a marked improvement over Carolyn Wonderland's clunky debut. The album's sound is punchy, crisp, and unencumbered by excess fiddling -- as it should be when the band in question lives and dies by its gritty live shows. It opens with the punchy Stones knock-off "Last Living Stranger" before moving on to the less derivative "Stuck in the Road" and "Loose Ends," two regret-fueled laments doused in the salty moisture of night sweats and desperate tears. Co-written with former Imperial Monkey Screamin' Kenny Blanchet, the songs offer the first real proof that Wonderland is coming into her own as a composer and lyricist. Ditto Wonderland's much-improved vocals, which are only rarely spoiled by an impersonation-like hollowness. ~ Hobart Rowland, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Houston's premier blues-rock belter disappoints on her muddy, uncertain debut, an album full of club-tested numbers that seem to go nowhere without the attendant beer buzz and good-natured biker-hippie vibe Carolyn Wonderland and her Imperial Monkeys exude on stage. Even so, the loose arrangements give guitarist Eric Dane plenty of space to play, and his slide work is simply liquid throughout Play With Matches. This is a product of Texas, after all, where letting one's hair down on occasion is crucial to survival. So too bad onderland's low-register vibrato, accented by the occasional growl-and-yowl combo, tends toward the mannered and stiff -- as if the feisty spirit of Janis Joplin were frozen solid inside the chilly pipes of Melissa Etheridge. ~ Hobart Rowland, All Music Guide
