Coda.fm

The Pirate's Gospel

by Alela Diane

• Listen to a preview now
• Buy it at Amazon.com

Now here's a lovely surprise. A singer-songwriter who hails from Nevada City, California, and currently resides in Portland, Oregon, Alela Diane Menig has a voice that seems far older than her early-twenty-something years. This version of her second album has been newly mastered, slightly truncated, and resequenced: the changes are all for the better. But if you've not heard her before, that's cool; her early releases were all on her own CD-R label. Her sing-songy tunes are honest and earthy, her diction intense and mannered but never pretentious. It's hard to believe this crisp recording was made in a home studio. The songs--plaintive vocals accompanied by a slight guitar and backing vocals, often little else--seem situated perfectly between the parlor and the campfire. Alela's a talented vocalist, in the vein of Josephine Foster, Regina Spektor, and Jolie Holland. At times she even approaches the heights of Karen Dalton and Joni Mitchell. More soon, please! --Mike McGonigal