Graceful Ghost [ENHANCED]

Grey DeLisle

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 16, 2004)
• Original Release Date: March 16, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Sugarhill
• ASIN: B0001ENYAS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #131,233 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
It's always a challenge to create a record that's heavily steeped in antediluvian influences, yet still manages to capture the imagination of listeners in the digital age. But that's what Grey De Lisle has succeeded in doing with this captivating album, her first for Sugar Hill. A San Diego-raised singer-songwriter best known (until now) for her Hollywood cartoon voiceovers, De Lisle used a small, tight-knit group of musicians while recording on analog equipment in her home studio. The minimalist arrangements frame her dulcet voice with old-timey instruments like autoharp, pedal harmonium, celeste, and piano. The result is a collection of gem-like originals (plus one obscure Kitty Wells cover) that capture the stark beauty and spirit of 19th-century love and disaster ballads in a way that has emotional currency and immediacy for contemporary listeners. --Bob Allen

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dolly Parton meets Ken Burns at the Civil War, March 17, 2004

By A Customer

This stunning CD is like a cross between the simple and infectious porch music of an early Dolly Parton record and a smart and evocative soundtrack of a Civil War movie. These aren't so much songs as little portraits whose characters ache-with both lust and sorrow. The CD is almost whimsical in the light touch it gives these deep lyrics. Grey De Lisle first caught my ear with her gorgeous voice and sometimes hilarious, always woeful lyrics about man problems on her self-produced Homewrecker CD (most memorable line: "I shoved 19 years of nerve into this dress, and I'm only 22"). This new CD uses her lyrical cleverness to tell stories of whole, desperate lives. I was so awestruck on first listen that I wondered if it would wear well: it does. It has that easygoing charm of Dolly's early records. I listen over and over as if the songs are old classics that keep the memories alive of lost stories and lost loves. They sound so genuine that even the one cover of a country classic seems like De Lisle's own. It's the simplicity that brings me back; it sounds like it was recorded on vintage sound equipment with no more in it than a few great musicians, their instruments, and their whole hearts. My favorite CD of this year.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moody, challenging Americana album, April 8, 2004

By	Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Wow... talk about a shift of direction! After self-releasing a pair of semi-dismal rockabilly-retro albums, LA-based singer-songwriter Grey DeLisle has apparently found her metier, slowing things down and penning a bunch of spooky-sounding Carter Family/Dolly Parton-styled acoustic, old-timey ballads, material that fits her somewhat shaky voice much better than the uptempo bluesiness of the rockabilly scene. Before this disc came out, she was firmly planted on my "danger sign" list -- now I'm really curious to see where she goes from here. Admittedly, this disc is still gimmicky and bandwagonesque in an entirely different kind of way, but it has an atmospheric feel that works for me. Definitely worth checking out... Fans of Be Good Tanyas and Jolie Holland will probably like this as well.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Glorious Forgery, May 23, 2004

By	David Scott "mottdeterre" (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Graceful Ghost is the most gorgeous album from the 1800s you'll hear this year. DeLisle comes on like the ghost of Mother Maybelle or Kitty Wells (although sexier and more polished than either), and her songwriting shows ample hours studying at the feet of Dolly Parton (insert jokes about "the shade" here). A little research shows that DeLisle is an ultra-slick Hollywood voiceover queen and has released two homegrown retro-country albums prior to taking the big leap into spooky folk aimed straight for the O Brother! market. Yeah, I'm a bit jaded, but this album is clearly a fake and not afraid to admit it. (I love how the added ambient crackles and hiss on some songs fade out before the music does!) And yet, it's stunningly beautiful and DeLisle's talent as a singer and a songwriter cannot be denied. But she seems very market savvy/driven and going after a niche, I think; too often from head and not from the heart as it were. Still, it's far, far, far superior to the icky yuppie "country" slopped out on Norah Jones version 2.0. I wouldn't recommend The Graceful Ghost to anyone in place of authentic rural American field recordings, however I do think it stands a good chance to make my list for the best of '04 -- 2004 and not 1804, that is.