As a music reviewer of 13 + years let me preface this by saying that there are VERY few albums I remember where I was or what I was doing the first time I heard them. I still remember the first time I heard Christine Kane’s Rain & Mud & Wild & Green though. I was in my car going across town to the grocery store. I popped in this artist I’d never heard of (I was intending to get the “idea” of what the album was all about during my ten minute trip) and was immediately mesmerized by her soft, yet commanding voice and the wild eloquence of her lyrics and songwriting. I drove around until the CD had played through to its end. As with every album of Kane’s, Wide Awake made me feel much the same.
Wide Awake, Kane’s first studio album since 2004’s Right Outta Nowhere, is as brilliant as anything she has done to date. Opening with the self-realized title track, the album sets an introspective tone right away. Although I don’t have any real justification for saying this, I will say that the album, from the get-go, seems even more intimate than her other works. It’s maybe for that reason that some of these songs required a few listens to really sink in. For example, the gentle and wonderfully melodic “I Am the Moon” isn’t immediately striking but once that underlying groove finally grabs hold of you, it just doesn’t let go. The upbeat and quirky “How Not to Behave” is another highlight among highlights as Kane brings some sarcasm into the mix. “Virginia” is an excellent track as well, breaking up the album a bit by taking a more storyteller-esque lyrical approach than most of the other songs.
What it all really comes down to though is Kane’s voice. It’s beautiful, subtle, and it draws you in. When you hear her voice, you listen because you feel she’s going to tell you something that you will NEED to know (like when you hear Bono or Johnny Cash). Wide Awake is an excellent album that everyone that enjoys semi-acoustic, Folk, Alt. Country, Americana, Grassroots, or whatever name you’d like to place on it, should own. While you are picking it up, might I suggest you pick up the whole catalog? You won’t be disappointed.
Reviewed by Mark Fisher
