Three Weird Sisters
Rite the First Time
Bedlam House (2001)
http://www.bedlamhouse.com

No one knows what I know
One turn and I'm lost in time.

Do you look at a tree and remember a country childhood raking leaves? Do you wonder about the species? Do the fall colors bring you through to a swirling juxtaposition of pattern? Do the elves inside bother you? Do you ponder all these things at one time?

Three Weird Sisters are three women from Atlanta and Rite the First Time is an unusual mix of Euro-Celtic traditional, contemporary folk covers, and sf/fantasy. Most noticeable here is 2000 SHSA journeyman champion harper Gwen Knighton: the Celtic track and some of the original SF songs and covers are infused with the pretty result of her fingers. These are my favorites, because they are charming and the harmonies are nice. They could be compared in ambience to the former Houston group, Ceili's Muse, and in fact they cover Nancy McCallion from The Mollys' "On We Go.". There is surely something Southern Celtic about the way they sound.

The sisters do some interesting covers. "Boys Want Sex In the Morning" is about sex , rates an "X" even without the 7 words and is fairly embarrassing to play. Cheryl Wheeler's "When Fall Comes To New England," accompanied by an almost harplike guitar, glides nicely. Dar William's esoteric "Iowa" effectively contrasts Gwen's harpistry with the roughly realistic vocals of acoustic bassist-Reiki Master Teresa Gibson Powell. The subject matter as well as the vocal duality of harshness vs harmonic union defines the schizophreneity of this album.

Gwen's composition "Six Days" is an interesting piece. It coincidentally reminded me of a Quaker friend who is sending her child to a Christian school in Hood River where she gets more attention. "Is my dad going to hell?" my friend's daughter asks. "In A Gown Too Blue" is about a woman stuck in the year 1400 and is, based on a science fiction novel by Connie Willis. "Absolutely Bonkers" is an old time song by bodhranista Brenda Sinclair Sutton and is about supposedly "crazy people" like Susan B. Anthony. The flaw as I see it to the original and crazy multiplicity of this recording is that the farther the selections stray from Celtica, fantasia, and landscapes, the farther they stray from sounding good, the farther you could say, they stray from aesthetics.

write: gennett at gorge dot net

The Columbia Gypsy