Skylar Gudasz
Oleander
Daniel 13
2016
Rating: 7.5 made-for-TV-movies out of 10
Despite
being local I know next to nothing about Skylar Gudasz. And because of
that, it's easy for me to entertain the rumor (that I just completely made up)
that this is actually a long lost Karen Carpenter record that Skylar found in
an old dusty barn and decided to release under her own name. Yeah,
there's probably a little bit more twang to this than you would expect
from a Carpenter record, but maybe that's the direction she was heading
in before the recordings got lost in that barn! I mean, it's possible
right?
According to this much better write-up
by my man Grayson, someone who is actually paid to give his opinion on
music, Gudasz employed a "who's who" in creating "Oleander" - Chris Stamey
(the dBs) recorded it, and she had musical assistance from a wide
swath including the North Carolina Symphony, Django Haskins (Old
Ceremony), Brad Cook (Megafaun), and even the one-and-only Norman Blake
(Teenage Fanclub)! Her high-quality choices in musical accompaniment
fall right in line with the high-quality of her songwriting - there is a
timeless nature to her material...these songs (and by extension, her
fantastic voice) feel like they've been around forever. Fans of Sharon
Van Etten, Aimee Mann, and fellow locals Mount Moriah would be
well served to pick this one up.
