Kate McDonnell Where The Mangoes Are CD

While Kate McDonnell qualifies as a fine contemporary folkie, she isn't the type of singer who forgets her roots on Where the Mangoes Are. On self-penned songs like "Tumbleweed" and "Go Down Moses," she relies on electric guitars and drums to deliver the message. But her thoughtful reflections on "Hey Joe" and her politics on "Mercy" hark back to an earlier time. McDonnell's even capable of playing the old-school folkie straight on "Railroad Bill," a nice traditional piece done in a style that recalls an early Joan Baez. This combination effectively gives McDonnell's songs a tuneful groove and a thoughtful depth. It doesn't hurt that she's a good singer who has taken her lyrics to heart, giving the words of a song like "5:05" an emotional edge. It's also helpful that McDonnell receives backup from a solid band, fully capable of mixing up the arrangements to suit the needs of each song. Electric guitarist Marc Shulman and violinist/harmonica/accordion player Mindy Jostyn provide stellar support, while bassist Scott Petito and drummer Sam Brewton keep the whole affair grounded. While the album is good to the last track, it's possible that some listeners will find a piece like "Mercy" a bit preachy. McDonnell, however, never lets her political views overrun her ability to make good music. Folkies young and old will enjoy Where the Mangoes Are. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.

When folk guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke told Kate McDonnell, "Stop doing that, you're giving me a headache!" he wasn't really trying to discourage her from performing. After all, her original songs have earned her a first place win at the 2002 Mountain Stage NewSong Festival songwriting competition (among other awards), appearances on the syndicated Mountain Stage and World Cafe radio programs and at the Newport Folk Festival, praise from critics and fellow musicians, and an international following during her dozen years as a solo performer. It was only the sight, not the sound, of righthanded Kate playing her acoustic guitar lefthanded and strung upside-down that left him facetiously befuddled. And no one has any complaints about her abilities as a singer-songwriter - no less an expert than Tom Paxton has said Kate's music "has grace, intelligence, warmth and more."Kate's songs and vocals are as distinctive as her self-taught guitar technique. "Where the Mangoes Are," her first CD for Appleseed and fourth solo release overall, continues her ascension into broader public recognition with twelve songs, all but two of them originals, that showcase her clear, tender soprano voice, her vulnerable but resilient lyrical outlook, and crisp, fingerpicked guitar playing. Two songs on "Where the Mangoes Are," "Mercy" and "Softhearted Girl," have both already won first place honors in the Plowshares Songwriting Competition and the Susquehanna Songwriting Contest in 2004; a third, "Go Down Moses," won the 2002 Mountain Stage NewSong Festival competition, and a fourth, the darkly seductive "Lemon Marmalade," was a finalist in the 2003 Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest. An earlier recording of "Mercy," co-written with friend Anne Lindley, as were seven other "Mangoes" songs, also received enormous folk show airplay prior to the recent U.S. Presidential elections for its troubled view of "people pinned to the wall by a crazy man's knife" and a society in which her "neighborhood gets smaller as Bush comes to shove."While "Mangoes" opens with the breezy road song "Tumbleweed," driven by Marc Shulman's electric guitar fills, much of the material on the CD concerns the rollercoaster of love -its highs ("Go Down Moses," "Lemon Marmalade"), lows ("Softhearted Girl," Steve Earle's "Goodbye Song"), and in-between terrors ("Mayday," "Fires"). Other aspects of the human experience - troubled friendships, death - are addressed in "Hey Joe," "Luis," and "5:05." For additional seasoning, there's a cheerful acoustic-blues arrangement of the traditional "Railroad Bill." Sympathetic accompaniment iDirty Linen (p.62) - "[McDonnell] rocks out fearlessly on the Stones-influenced 'Tumbleweed' and 'Mayday,' a vibrant exploration of emerging love."