Erin Bode, The Little Garden
Featured Album
Disarmingly simple folk-jazz sneaks past your defenses and hits you where you live.
As with Over and Over from 2006, Erin Bode demonstrates her disarmingly clear vocals and guile-free demeanor are better suited for original material that's on the folk side of jazz. It's risky to eschew the easy personae associated with female vocalists — sophisticated chanteuse, bawdy blues mama, earnest folkie — but Bode doesn't go for guises and doesn't over-sing, even on songs that at first blush can seem nursery-rhyme simple. But she knows how to loft her voice into the prevailing wind of the composition — its message, its rhythm, the depth of its instrumentation — and gather its force beneath her while retaining a feathery touch (but never as breathless as Norah Jones, to whom she is frequently compared). The way she finesses the pivotal change in sentiment on the lyric, “I surrender/Surrender to no one” on the title track is akin to one cutting raw gems into ring settings. And the way she embodies the whimsical-as-a-heart-attack love-song narrative on “Chasing After You,” yet can swoon with anxiety against the strings on the chamber-jazz oriented “Two,” and then cough up rue with such precise intonation (“How did I get so far away?” she wonders with equal parts alarm and confusion) on “Cold Water” reveals her emotional versatility. There are moments when Bode can seem insipid or too kewpie-doll cute. Sometimes the closing lullaby, “Goodnight,” feels that way, yet on other listens it charms. Ditto the slow-building climax on “Sydney Come Down.” But much more often than not, the songs on The Little Garden sneak past the critical watchdog and hit you where you live.
