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REMEMBER THE SUN • Pieta Brown
Despite two full CDs and EP under her belt, Pieta Brown remains a well-kept secret. Opening tours for her father, folk-icon Greg Brown, has certainly afforded a fair amount of exposure, but by pop standards she continues to hover under the radar, something of a cult figure. Remember the Sun could and should be the release that changes that.
Once again in evidence are the keenly observed details of small-town life: "there's a man at the bar downing a drink / you buy him another, he'll tell you what he thinks / it's a TV nation and you can't turn it off / where a hard headed man whose belly's gone soft / is holding his woman and they're moving slow / just trying to get out of West Monroe." But like every other feeling artist these days, Brown lets larger concerns creep in to her lyrics. In "Rollin' Down The Track" she accuses, "it's pouring down rain & there's thunder up in my head / the masters of war still sleep at home in their beds." Yet she doesn't despair; in the rollicking "Sonic Boom" she claims, "the sound of a heartbeat gives me hope / from way down within / for the water & the trees & the land & the fire & our precious oxygen."
Heartfelt lyrics about the state of the mankind are not in short supply these days, though few are as well turned as Brown's. It is not her worries about the world that are likely to raise Remember The Sun's profile higher than her previous endeavors. What may propel Pieta to the next level of public acceptance and acclaim is the way she, along with master guitarist Bo Ramsey and new cohort Chris Goldsmith have managed to produce this CD in a manner that is just a little bit more radio-friendly (as the biz people like to say) than her past efforts. The miracle is that they were able to do it without losing any of the warmth, atmosphere and intimacy that made her early efforts so special. A few well placed, tasteful keyboards, textures, strings, and harmony vocals add just the right amount of ear candy to make this not just her most commercial sounding record so far, but also her best.
Remember The Sun is an exceptional work on its own, but also exciting as a step along the way for a young artist who is still evolving and improving. Her melodic, lyric, and stylistic palette is expanding, without losing that quintessential Pieta-ness. As good as Remember The Sun is, I can't wait to see where she will go from here.
• Michael Ross
listen to clips return to covers
pietabrown.com see our new interview with Pieta
& if you missed it, enjoy our 2003 interview with Pieta
One Little Indian photo: Sonya Naumann
