Miss Understood by Carolyn Wonderland (CD, Feb-2008, Bismeaux Productions)

Album Features
UPC:	678572959127
Artist:	Carolyn Wonderland
Format:	CD
Release Year:	2008
Record Label:	Bismeaux Productions
Genre:	Alternative, Rock & Pop

Track Listing
1. Misunderstood
2. I Found the Lions
3. Bad Girl Blues
4. Walk On
5. Still Alive and Well
6. Long Way to Go
7. I Don't Want to Fall for You
8. Trouble in the City
9. Throw My Love
10. I Live Alone with Someone
11. Farmer Song, The
12. Feed Me to the Lions

Details
Producer:	Ray Benson
Distributor:	RED Distribution
Recording Type:	Studio
Recording Mode:	Stereo
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Personnel: Carolyn Wonderland (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, trumpet, piano); Lloyd Maines (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, steel guitar, baritone guitar); Ray Benson (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, baritone guitar, tambourine); Cindy Cashdollar (dobro); Tracy Seeger, Leigh Mahoney (violin); Jason Roberts (fiddle); Ames Asbell (viola); Sara Nelson (cello); Guy Forsyth (harmonica); John H.R. Mills (saxophone); John Mills (horns); Cole El Saleh (keyboards); Glenn Fukunga (bass guitar); David Sanger (drums, tambourine, percussion); Jamie Oldaker, Barry "Frosty" Smith (drums); Shelley King, Tim Curry (background vocals).Recording information: Bismeaux Studio, Austin, TX.Photographer: Todd V. Wolfson.On her seventh album, Texas blues singer/guitarist Carolyn Wonderland teams with Ray Benson, leader of Asleep at the Wheel, who serves as her producer, co-writer on two songs, backup guitarist, and the head of her record label, Bismeaux Productions. Benson seems to have just let Wonderland be herself, and that results in a varied collection that begins by emphasizing her blues-rock bona fides on the lap steel workout "Misunderstood" and ends with the ballad "Feed Me to the Lions," on which she is accompanied by the Tosca String Quartet. In between, there is plenty of room for her tasty, sometimes ferocious guitar playing on both originals and such covers as a version of the Johnny Winter signature song "Still Alive and Well." She has a powerful, rhythmic voice, her phrasing, if not her timbre, sometimes recalling Janis Joplin's, perhaps because they come from the same part of the world. While the rockers clearly provide a comfort zone for her, Wonderland seems equally at home on calmer material, notably the slow blues "Bad Girl Blues" and "I Don't Want to Fall for You," which sounds like a lost song from the days of Tin Pan Alley. Such versatility serves her well and only whets the appetite for her next guitar solo. ~ William Ruhlmann

Editorial Reviews
[S]he brings all her talents together in one package....If you enjoy the music of Marcia Ball and Bonnie Raitt, give Wonderland a listen...
Dirty Linen