Sugar and Sand

Subtitled A Triology in Three Moods, Curtis can call it what she wants. I'm going to call it music worth your listening to, for throughout the twelve songs that create this lush and evocative disc you can hear in her thrillingly passionate vocals and intelligently eclectic mix of musical motifs and instruments that Curtis loves her life and inspires us to do the same.

Coalescing her love of old age styles with her own New Age folk, Curtis worries not how pundits categorize her. Slipping comfortably into the irrepressible blues of Do The Dishes, Too and the torchy The Earthquake That Was You, Curtis then introduces us to the country girl next door in the expressive recollection When I Was Still A Girl. Confidently, Curtis assures us that the mystical is attainable in the haunting Celtic flavored Pretty Eye.

There's much to be said about Curtis alone, but the musicians she surrounds herself with deserve equal time. The fiery lyricism of violinist Autumn Hancock boldy informs many of the songs, as does the melodic clarity of mandolinist Radim Zenkl. Pianist Walter Bankovitch strides from the blues to the orchestral, as easily as Curtis moves from Middle Eastern motif to ukulele.

Track List:

Edited by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)