On the follow-up to 1989's Walkin' on the Moon,
Katy Moffatt decided to crank up the volume a bit and let her hair down.
Child Bride is anything but a delicate recording. It's closer to rockabilly and the woolly side of country than any singer/songwriter outing. Some of the musicians who appear here are
Carlo Nuccio from
the Continental Drifters, former
Lone Justice guitar ace
Marvin Etzioni (who wrote the title track and another one), guitarist
Duane Jarvis,
Dave Alvin, the late
Donald Lindley,
Pat McLaughlin,
Greg Leisz, and
Los Lobos'
Steve Berlin, among others. This is a singer's effort; uncharacteristically,
Moffatt didn't pen a track here, but in her readings of these songs, they become hers. From the rolling country rockabilly of the title track to her deep Memphis soul meets Nashville contemporary country reading of
John Hiatt's "We Ran" to a loose-wristed rocking reading of Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On,"
Moffatt digs deep into her cowboy angel alto and delivers with raucous passion and a gritty verve that's closer to
Wanda Jackson than it is
Tammy Wynette -- and that's only on side one. The second half opens with another
Etzioni rocker, entitled "False Alarm," that pulls out the stops before
Moffatt turns to a slower -- though not slow -- articulation of the
Doc Pomus classic "Lonely Avenue."
Pat McLaughlin's "You Done Me Wrong" is given classic rockabilly treatment, but it leans a lot heavier on honky tonk country than it does on rock. The set closes with the
Wesley Rose classic "Settin' the Woods on Fire," so closely associated with
Hank Williams. It's a duet with
Dave Alvin and the feel is steaming honky tonk with a beautiful pair of guitars courtesy of
Alvin and
Richard Stekol.
Juke Logan's harmonica break gives the track a serious blues edge before
Leisz returns on Weissenborn slide guitar to anchor it back in the out-of-control Saturday midnight honky tonk country bus.
Child Bride is easily the hardest-rocking record
Katy Moffatt ever issued; it's also the closest to country music's heart. ~ Thom Jurek