I'll be ready in a minute...
Diesel
Mr. Roosey's Records
1998
13 tracks
Diesel is not a highway transport truck or a railway locomotive but an attractive young lady from Hawaii. She is also a good singer. Helped out by an impressive complement of musicians and backup singers (I count 21 people), Diesel puts on a competent performance. However, especially with all the help she had, is simply competent enough? The music on this release makes easy enough listening, but it includes nothing to set it apart and certainly nothing that sounds like hit material.
Unlike many of today's singers, Diesel has included only two songs she wrote herself, but has included some written by other participants in this project as well as several excellent songs by some of the best writers in the business. Given Diesel's selection of songs and her solid musical backing, a listener might expect much more from this music than it delivers. It may be that I'll be ready in a minute... is aptly named: that Diesel is not yet ready for exposure to the international market.
Last night, I happened to be at an important regional country singing competition. Any of the ten finalists I heard sings about as well as Diesel. Diesel sounds like the local or perhaps regional singer whose hard work and talent has brought her to the top of that market but must now embark on a period of even harder work to move to the next level. Given the amount of support and ambition Diesel appears to have, I think she'll make it.
This is an uneven release, with some performances that are quite strong and others that might better have been left until next time. Sometimes, Diesel is helped by her choice of excellent songs. In at least one case, she has chosen a song that, while excellent, is, for now at least, beyond her reach. This may reflect her willingness to take a risk, to push her own talents in order to grow.
Diesel has a sweet folk-singer voice, yet much of this uneasy mix of folk, pop, and country songs has a strong country flavour. It may be that Diesel, like many artists early in their careers, needs to more clearly define where she wants to be as an artist. While this release has many elements of country music, the overall sound makes it difficult to view it as a country (or any other specific genre) release. [Yes, I know that I'm constantly balking against pigeon-holing artists, but I do think that at least the artist should have a sound focus on what he or she is doing.]
Among the better songs on this release is the sweet Don Robertson number, "They Remind Me Too Much of You," a classic romantic country ballad of the type that might have been sung by artists like Ray Price some thirty-five years ago. This song, well written and with Diesel at the top of her form, invites the listener to come back for more.
At the other end of the spectrum is "Your House," an a capella song that Alanis Morrissette included as an untitled bonus track at the end of her Grammy winning 1995 release, Jagged Little Pill. In general, singers used to having instrumental accompaniment to rely on for their cues and key tend to have some difficulty singing a capella. Even as an a capella song, "Your House" is not as easy to sing as Morrissette makes it sound.
Diesel gives "Your House" a passable interpretation but, considering the content of the lyrics, seems a bit laid back emotionally. There are also times when she seems to slip just a bit off key, lingering at that edge until she regains her foothold. Anyone who has heard the original may find that this version just doesn't sound right.
It's interesting to note that this release from Hawaii includes three Canadian songs. Morrisette's "Your House" is joined by Gordon Lightfoot's "The Circle is Small" and, tucked in just after the last track, "K-K-K-Katy," the classic Canadian stuttering song written by Winnipegger Geoffrey O'Hara in 1917.
Depending on where she may focus her attention, Diesel may spend her life as the most popular club singer on the island of Maui or she may embark on a very successful national or even international recording career. I'll be ready in a minute..." brings her neatly up to that crossroads. The raw talent is there to be developed. Now it's up to Diesel to decide which road to take.
To learn more about Diesel and her music, visit DieselMusic.com.
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