Leah Siegel - Little Mule

by Frank Gualtier -- 08/25/07

Leah Siegel's most recent album 'Little Mule', released in 2006, is 'pick O the litter' one of the best from a year that brought us a robust population of high quality non-mainstream works.

Listening to her music is an intense experience. From ballad to board rattler her charged rock-n-roll delivery is electric and memorable.

Little Mule - Track listing:

1. A Day At The River (With You & Your Lover)
2. The Water
3. The Grandma Song
4. Sea Dragon
5. Lemon
6. A Trail Of Peach Pits
7. My Heart Is A Graveyard
8. Pin Down
9. The Motorcycle Song
10. Black Tile Room *
11. Raincloud
12. The Pond Was Dry **

All Songs Written by Leah Siegel
Except *Seve Elliot, Chris Tarry, Leah Siegel
Geoff Stanfield & Brian Wolfe
**Leah Siegel and Geoff Stanfield

Her music has a signature sound but beneath that it's alternative and good old rock and roll.

The signature 'Siegel' sound is created largely through her amazing and attention grabbing voice along with what I believe are chord progressions containing a sizeable number of rich sounding 7ths and 9ths. There's also a distinct crunch to much of her overdriven guitar^[§].

Of her voice and guitar --

In the song 'Pin Down' she takes her voice deep into her throat and sings softly with much emotion along a gentle rich progression. Then she soars to skin dimpling heights through a beautiful repeating straight sequence split by arpeggios that are near wont of transformation to a song in full Spanish style -- all the while tending your ears with that beautiful throaty voice.

And she can turn around and punch the pedal on songs like 'The Water'.

Both these songs, and a couple of others, have chord structures that remind me of something Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) might have put together. My mind jumps to many examples but I don't want to get burried here so I'll toss out just one -- anyone remember The Crunge, a song drenched in 6ths and 9ths that had a kind of rhythmic crunch^§ or bite to the guitar?

Leah Siegal is one of the hottest acts around and she's given us 'Little Mule' -- one of the best albums in recent years.

It's definitely one of my favorites.

She has some excellent tracks loaded on her myspace profile. It's a great place to start...

 
 
 

Links for Leah Siegel:

• Website
• MySpace
• Artist Direct: Little Mule