​Carolyn Wonderland (from the album Truth Is

​Carolyn Wonderland (from the album Truth Is

​Carolyn Wonderland (from the album Truth Is available on Alligator Records) (by Danny McCloskey)
Holding the flame high for Texas Blues, Carolyn Wonderland returns to lay life lessons in song with Truth Is, putting her observations and experiences into the storylines as she accents the tales with master-class electric guitar riffs and rides. Dave Alvin is once again sitting in the producer’s chair, as he was for Carolyn Wonderland’s Alligator Records debut, Tempting Fate. Pounding drums and the sizzle of an electric guitar combine to announce entry into Truth Is with opening cut “Sooner or Later”. The song sets the standard for the release as the power of the playing merges with need-to-hear DIY guides in the advice of ‘sooner or later gonna have to have a plan, sooner or later gonna have to take a stand’. Truth Is draws a line in “I Ain’t Going Back” as the album bets on a battle for “Tattoos as His Talisman” while Carolyn Wonderland heads down south on a second line groove in “It Should Take” and quiets the hammering beats to a rhythmic patter to cross “Wishful Thinking”.
Her guitar journey began in Houston, in a home well-stocked with musical accessories. Carolyn Wonderland began playing guitar at age six on her mother’s vintage Martin. Forbidden from using picks that would scratch the instruments surface, the rules and regulations allowed her to develop a unique playing style. Over the course of a career musical on-the-job training provided lessons in Rural, Roadhouse, and Jump Blues as well as New Orleans R&B. Her Blues schooling can be heard in Truth Is as the album plays a tribute to a piano man who has left the stage with “Blues for Gene” while it listens to memories and supports justice with “Let’s Play a Game”, the title track looking for answers in popular life one-liners. Carolyn Wonderland stands tall on the album as a beacon for the Blues, finger-pointing fly-by-night friends and lovers in “Orange Juice Blues”, drifting on percolating rhythms to ride the current of “Deep Ocean Blue” as a shuffle fortifies the personal choices in “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard”. (by Danny McCloskey)
Listen and buy the music of Carolyn Wonderland from AMAZON
For more information, please visit the Carolyn Wonderland website