Reviews
Artist:Lisa O'Kane
Album:It Don't Hurt
Label:New Light
Tracks:11
Website:http://www.lisaokane.com/
There are so many words to describe Lisa O'Kane; singer, songwriter, interpreter of other's songs, hardworking, committed, dedicated, single mom, internationally acclaimed - and those are just a few, in no particular order.
O'Kane has come a long way from Fish Camp, California, the tiny town in Yosemite National Park where she was raised. "Fish Camp, population 36!", she laughs when asked to recall her hometown, although clearly she has very fond memories of the place that gave her her start in life. After two critically acclaimed releases, three triumphant tours of Europe and five U.K. tours, the Los Angeles-based artist has recently released her new and long awaited CD 'It Don't Hurt' on New Light Entertainment/Universal.
"I'm excited about this record," O'Kane says. "I've really grown as a songwriter and as an artist. This album is very personal… it reflects the many changes in my life over the past two years." She has good reason to be excited too - the CD is brimming with songs that draw you in from the first note and leave you wanting to hear more.
Lisa is held in high esteem by her musical peers, as you might surmise from some of the musicians who join her on her new offering; guitar virtuoso Albert Lee (known as "Mr. Telecaster" and a veteran of bands that include Eric Clapton and Emmylou Harris to name but two), guitarist/mandolin picker Kenny Edwards (Karla Bonoff, Stone Poneys, Linda Ronstadt) and pedal steel player Jay Dee Maness (Vince Gill, Bonnie Raitt, Buck Owens) - each one contributing their own touch to enhance the beauty of Lisa's soaring voice and raw emotion. On many occasions she has drawn comparisons with such greats as Joni Mitchell for her ability to squeeze every drop of emotion out of every song she writes and anything she sings. Never has this ability been more apparent than on this CD, which takes both the artist and the listener on a journey to a deeper place, which we have not visited together before.
"Ain't Done Nothing" is the opening track... an up-tempo song penned by Lisa herself, with a strong beat, Albert Lee's guitar and a distinct country sound, in which she lets rip and tells an ex-lover exactly what both she and her dog think of him. Lisa states that the song was initially about one person, but when she had completed it she realized it was in fact about someone else entirely. "Pay for My Sins" is another which Lisa wrote. It has a distinct catchy blues sound and is inherently about making the right decisions for yourself and choosing the right path over the wrong one. "I'm Done," Lisa describes as a song of empowerment. "I wrote this when I was really angry and in doing so came up with a cathartic way of not only releasing the anger I was feeling, but more importantly, took back my power as a woman and stood up for myself."
"Got the Car Running' is also about empowerment in a sense, and Lisa states that recording it gave her some closure after she got her car running and left a relationship similar in its negativity to one which she did not have the confidence to leave in her twenties. Clearly this is a woman who has learned from experiences. "Misery and Happiness" has a wonderful, almost bluegrass, sound. It explores how for a lot of us, there will be that one person in our lives who causes us both misery and happiness. In Lisa's case the misery prevailed for a long time, but it's over now. "Paper Thin" represents what O'Kane believes to be a common occurrence in a lot of relationships. "We stop trying at one point or another and just exist, which is usually more painful than making the decision to leave. There's a fine line in matters of the heart and sometimes it's paper thin."
"Uninvited Guests" is one of the songs, which immediately made me do a double take. Ultimately the song is about the temptations people may feel when their significant other is not around, whether that be emotionally or geographically. Lisa says, "Temptation is such a strong feeling and this song pushes it back, which is usually the better decision. If only all of us could follow that rule."
"Remember This" is a beautiful, poignant ballad written from the perspective of one trying to hold on to what once was a great love.
John Prine's "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" was one of the big surprises for me. I thought no one could do this achingly beautiful song justice after John and Nanci Griffith's versions. Apparently I was wrong. Lisa gives it a totally different treatment and makes the song completely her own. She says of her decision to include it on the album, "John Prine. Need I say more? I'd been singing this song on tour for a few years and then my life took a personal change. The lyrics became almost too close for comfort but still extremely personal. I was in love, but very lonely. Now I'm alone, but not lonely. Big difference."
Perhaps my favourite song on the CD, is in fact the first I heard, "Give Me This Night," about the times in life we had to let something go that was not good for us, but we wanted to hold on for just another moment. Lisa suggests, "Perhaps it was the fear of moving on, alone, into unknown territory and we just wanted to hang on to the familiarity of the current situation because that's all we knew. I've been there, holding on, and it hurts like hell. Now I'm free." Lisa can turn her voice to all kinds of songs, as this CD so readily demonstrates, but singing bittersweet ballads such as this one her voice shines and sparkles like the sun reflecting on a wave.
"It Don't Hurt" was written by a friend of O'Kane's after they had spoken a few times. While it is obviously about the difficult things she has experienced in her life, I feel very strongly that the song represents hope and the idea of coming out the other side a stronger person. The singer states; "I think it illustrates how far I've come in my life as a woman, mother and artist - in that order." As listeners I think this is a song to which we can all relate; we all have experiences, which we hope will one day cease to hurt us. Maybe, like Lisa O'Kane, we can all one day move forward and leave the painful experiences behind us.
This, without a doubt is Lisa O'Kane's strongest release to date and deserves to be her breakthrough album. After five UK tours and three tours of Europe, European radio DJs fans of roots and Americana music have had a secret for a while now. But with 'It Don't Hurt,' American listeners are about to discover our secret for themselves; Lisa O'Kane has arrived.
Helen Mitchell