The adjective “Appalachian” may be overused, but Portland, Oregon, singer Little Sue — a.k.a. Susannah Jean Weaver — is in fact originally from West Virginia, and she sounds, well, Appalachian. Her voice has a rawness and a slight quaver, but it also has an Emmylou Harris-like quality and a confident presence.
With her debut record, Chimneys & Fishes, Little Sue is successful in translating the warmth and charm of her live shows onto disc. Her voice is the focal point of each of these 13 original songs, and she delivers the goods, ranging from the playfulness of the uptempo “Weber” to the lonesome tones of “Waiting For Water”. On this record, Little Sue is backed by three members of Golden Delicious — Kevin Richey on banjo, Pete Krebs on steel, and the amazing Marilee Hord on fiddle. They are joined by lead guitarist Jim Boyer, Mike Danner on accordion and piano, and a host of others as well.
Though generally solid, Chimneys & Fishes suffers from weaknesses in two areas. First, the production occasionally comes off as low-budget (which it was). The vocals sound far away and muffled on an otherwise fine song called “When You Lie”, and some of Hord’s tremendous fiddle work occasionally gets buried . Second, several of the songs aren’t lyrically compelling; they’re even downright silly at times. Like the line “Once we were swingers, were hummers and dingers” from “Bonnet”, or “Who would have known? Who could have seen? That you would take to springtime like a fishey takes to stream” from “Spring Becomes You, Rachel”.
But the record works in spite of these problems because it rises above them. The songs just sound natural and right, the playing is great, and the record gets stronger as it goes on. Which hopefully is a good omen for Little Sue’s next record.
