Land of Milk & Honey
Though written in the early 1950s and never previously recorded,Woody Guthrie's "Peace Call" provides a timely conclusion to this collection of politically pointed material. Trading verses with Texas troubadour Eliza Gilkyson on the pacifist anthem are kindred spiritsPatty Griffin,Mary Chapin Carpenter, andIris DeMent. Much of the rest of the album finds Gilkyson applying her vocal warmth and buoyant melodies to lyrics that probe the darker recesses of the human condition, from the terrorism evoked within the luminous "Tender Mercies" (with Gilkyson's son and daughter joining in harmony) to the revenge by a lifelong abuse victim in "Ballad of Yvonne Johnson" to the Shaker-style hymn of mankind's folly, "Milk and Honey." While Gilkyson brings a light touch to the album's weighty social concerns, the pop buoyancy of "Wonderland" and the rock & roller's ballad "Dark Side of Town" (with itsBand-like horn arrangement) extend the album's range beyond topical broadsides.--Don McLeese