White Widow
Black Heart
Tullo Records
www.whitewidowmusic.com
Reviewed by Kent Manthie
One of the new “queens” (and I’m not talking Greenich Village stuff here, now) of NYC is Carla Patullo. Brooklyn born and bred, Ms. Patullo finally broke through with an armful of songs, an acoustic guitar and a voice that’s both gritty and angelic, right into a deal with Tullo Tunes, an indie label out of New York.
Her debut album, under the name White Widow, is Black Heart. She is a one-woman-band, so I guess the idea is to make it seem like there is a multiplicity of wholes but instead there is just one “whole” who plays all the instruments, writes all the songs (except for the one cover of a Stevie Nicks song, “Lady of the Mountain”, a haunting, epic-poem-style tune, not unlike the Beatles’ “Fool on the Hill” in subject matter.
Songs like “Quitter” and “Give or Take” show a gritty, edgier side of Carla, but the aforementioned “Lady of the Mountain” and “In Your Life” show off a mellower, if not melancholy, side of her. I’d say she comes across as someone that fans of Ani DeFranco and/or Victoria Williams would probably like, since they are two singers that come to mind when I hear White Widow.
I’m sure a live show would be a breathtaking experience. Would there/is there a backup band for live shows? Or does she go out there Neil Young-like, with guitar and harp hooked up to your mouth and do an acoustic show or maybe a typical show is a little of both. That would be what I would like to see. -KM

The John Byrne Band
After the Wake
Self-Released, 2010
www.johnbyrneband.com
Reviewed by Kent Manthie
Irishman John Byrne has brought over with him some amazing tales of life and semi-autobiographical tunes. After the Wake is the name of his debut CD and it’s a good listen
What is helpful about the sheet that’s included in the CD sleeve is that each song is written about, reading, in a paragraph or two, whatever was the impetus for writing the song, like for instance, about “Boys Forget the Whale (or John Byrne’s 115th Dream about Bob Dylan)”, which is a very good song and, in fact, is basically a cover of “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” from Bringing it All Back Home, line by line he rewrote it to, I suppose, be original and to change things around a bit to change the perspective of things, going from Bob’s POV to seeing things through Byrne’s eyes. From the liner notes on a sheet inside the CD sleeve there is written, about this song, among other things, that although it is still a “story”, a lot of it rings painfully true to Byrne. I mean Byrne really can keep up the pace that Dylan laid down on the original, although Byrne’s version has different lyrics. The song is based on the legendary meeting between Bob Dylan & Woody Guthrie, when the former met the latter in the hospital, it is written there that it’s based on a “story, just a story…”, autobiographical, Byrne himself, I guess, had sought out Dylan to play a song or two of his own and see what kind of feedback he’d get – maybe Bob spurned him or something, one can only speculate about the “painfully true…” remark in the aforementioned liner notes.
Dylan’s always been known to have been a strange cat, so, hey, don’t take it personally.
After the Wake is a CD that is filled with a variety of tunes, folkish in some way, a couple that have a distinct Irish flavor to them as well as just plain, well, tunes.
The first cut is a pretty good way to start off the disc. “In Your Savior’s Place” is purported to have been based on a romantic story the songwriter had worked on once in the past. Also worth mentioning is “It’s a Gas That Makes You Laugh Before it Kills You”, a very catchy tune that you’ll want to listen to over and over again – listen for it to pop up on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” show (or request that they play it!), or on one of the many great college-based radio stations that are always “left of the dial” (in the 88.’s).
The songs range from the folkish to a more traditional Irish sound to some funky white boy blues, giving the disc a well-rounded sound a disc -KM.