Heather Maloney New Album Will Astonish

Don't be fooled by the demure cover. This one will bowl you over.

HEATHER MALONEY

Heather Maloney

Signature Sounds 2053

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Nearly every article on Heather Maloney mentions that when she hit the stage the first time in 2009 she nearly keeled over from stage fright. I remember those days. Color them gone, gone, gone. Let’s not waste any more time–Maloney’s third release, her first on Signature Sounds, is the year’s best acoustic release. Done. Can’t get any better. It is a work of maturity, deep emotion, and knock-you-to-your-knees beauty.

Maloney–originally from New Jersey and now in Western Massachusetts–was schooled in jazz and opera, studied classical Indian music, and spends time in meditation. Why the bio? Because all of these ground her in ways that elude many young singers. She writes with wisdom beyond her years and she interprets songs rather than feeling the need to prove her chops. Of course, it helps if those chops are already well done. We are served eleven songs that fall loosely in the folk country category, though jazz and pop undertones shine through. She can rock you with meaty, bouncy hooks (“Flutter”), impress you with a hand-jive/jazz mash up (“Hey Broken”), or stop you dead in your tracks with a poignancy and sweetness, as in “Dirt and Stardust,” a reflection on life’s ephemerality. (And she’s fine with that.) She has good politics too. “Grace,” a postmodern musing on the old gospel tune–with a clever refrain featuring elongated-to-clipped syllables–calls out “welfare queen” shouting hypocrites; and “John Ball” is where honky-tonk meets progressive thinking. She rounds off the album with “Flying on Helium,” a showstopper that’s simultaneously fragile and strong.

This album should draw comparisons to young Emmy Lou Harris and the debut release of Lucy Kaplansky. I say we dump the “emerging artist” label in favor of a new one: the Real Deal. --Rob Weir