‘Tornado’ is an upbeat horn filled song about tornadoes and bad luck as she sings ‘it seems like the tornadoes are following me,’ which is reminiscent of her ‘Dirty Old Tractor’ song from a few years back. She even plays a mean guitar solo on it and many others on the CD.
‘Bargain Shop Panties,’ encapsulates the Little Miss Higgins sound the best, featuring her quirky humour, and shows off her old school blues and jazz influences, plus features The D-Rangers Tom Fodey on muckbucket bass and shouting ‘bargain shop panties’ with Big Dave McLean, The D-Ranger’s Jaxon Haldane (who also produced the CD) , clarinetist and horn arranger Cedric Blary, Joanna Miller and Andrew Neville who are all popular Winnipeg musicians. It also features some superb mandolin playing from Tim Williams. Williams is all over the CD as well playing mandolin and banjolin on several tracks.
‘Snowin’ Today: A Lament for Louis Riel,’ is simultaneously a poetic and morbid tribute to Louis Riel which features some more great horns, plus a tuba and a really appropriate violin line by Blaine Badiuk.
She slows down a little on ‘Hope You Don’t Feel Blue,’ but delivers some pretty interesting lines like ‘Columbus was a cannibal.’
And I really like the a cappella grove of ‘Gather My Fruit,’
The other quirky highlight is ‘Glad your Whiskey Fits In My Purse,’ which starts off with a strong Pasty Cline, ’40s and ’50s country feel then launches into an upbeat New Orleans style jam featuring some ukulele, some more great horn lines, a whistle solo and Jaxon Haldane on banjo.
The CD ends with an ominous old blues style song called ‘Slaughterhouse (revisited) which features John Scole who owns the popular Times Changed Club in Winnipeg on bass as well as Tim Williams on mandolin and a harmonica solo form Big Dave McLean, plus a tasteful guitar solo from Foy Tayor.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
CD : Across The Plains
Artist: Little Miss Higgins
Genre: blues/jazz
Record Company: indie
Artist: Little Miss Higgins
Genre: blues/jazz
Record Company: indie
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