Look at Ghalia Volt‘s feet; you won’t see any grass growing underneath them since she constantly evolves her musical landscape. Since the Belgian blues guitarist’s arrival in the Crescent City in 2016, she’s already cut several albums. Shout Sister Shout is her fifth stateside recording and fourth on Germany’s Ruf Records, a label known for progressive-minded artists. It’s Volt’s greatest leap yet, a vibrant bluesy but even rockier sound atypical of her previous output. Rancho De La Luna Studio located in the desert hipster town of Joshua Tree, California, was the recording site with celebrated producer David Catching, former guitarist of hard rockers Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal. Catching surrounded her with a crack studio band, which included ex-Houma homie keyboardist Ben Alleman (Dr. John).
Though Volt does most of the guitar playing, but on the few tracks with guests also performing, it’s a guitar feast of styles and tones: searing, blistery rock solos, sizzling slide and even Bakersfield twang. She immediately commands your attention on the opening “Every Cloud” with her banshee-attacking slide guitar riffs. Her arrangements are hook-filled and infectious, so every song fits cohesively without hitting bumps or potholes. Additionally, Alleman’s keyboard/organ jamming interacts with Volt well.
It’s also Volt’s best batch of songs yet. The title song is a powerful feministic anthem featuring Volt singing such rebellious lines as “We ain’t trying to tell ’em what to wear / What to do with your own body,” which is sure to draw applause and whistles from progressive-minded genders. A trio of female vocalists echoing “key phrases” adds a hazy, ethereal effect.
“Insomnia,” co-written with her aunt Carmen Blanco Principal, is another beaut. Ghalia starts starkly on acoustic guitar with a conga accompaniment. As “Insomnia” progresses, the intensity builds, spacey effects increase, and soon, you feel staggeringly high while maintaining highway patrol sobriety. With this, you’re bound to feel empathy for those tortured, sleepless zombies wandering the Earth’s ground in the black of night.
As a songwriter, she’s creative, often observing someone else’s situation and twisting it into a tale of her own with a few romantic liberties, such as the romping “She’s Holdin’ You Back” and “Can’t Afford to Die” where an impoverished protagonist can’t bury a parent. On “Hop on a Ride,” she doesn’t mention the cities visited by name but reveals thinly veiled clues, such as Halstead Street for Chicago, the Arch for St. Louis, and Soulsville, a Memphis nickname for Stax. By the time she gets to Big Muddy, the pattern becomes apparent with reference to her adopted New Orleans, the “land of dreams.”
Shout Sister Shout has no duds or down moments with every track up-tempo and rocking. A real buzz of a record.
