ELIZA GILKYSON
Paradise Hotel
Red House Records 2005
www.elizagilkyson.com

What’s the 4-1-1?
The singer-songwriter Gilkyson follows up her Grammy nominated 2004 Land of Milk and Honey set with a collection of 10 new songs.

Genre
Folk / soft rock

The Good
I made my own personal discovery of Eliza Gilkyson when I attended a country music concert where she was the opening act. I enjoyed her set and ended up picking up two of her albums from the merchandise stand and had a brief conversation with her at that point. Last year brought along the CD Land of Milk and Honey, which was #4 on my Albums of 2004 list. It was a superb piece of work and deserved all the praise it got. Now Gilkyson is back again with Paradise Hotel. I really enjoy the folk music she crafts. It can be an up tempo song that has that sing along potential or it can be a heart rending ballad that tries to bring tears to your eyes. Finally, it could be a lyrical diatribe against the current political climate in the United States.

No matter that thematic style of the song, she invariably provides another addition to her musical tapestry. Since I make no secret of the fact that I enjoy country music, the song “Calm Before The Storm” having the strongest ties to that genre of music was a nice thing to hear. A three mid-tempo songs with a strong clear vocal performance really stood out to me, “Paradise Hotel”, “Think About You” and “Is It Like Today". Two songs struck me as the best and most powerful on this album. The first one is the politically charged “Man of God”, which decries the U.S.’s latest presidential administration. It features a mean and dirty electric guitar solo from Gilkyson’s brother Tony Gilkyson and a superb backbone provided by drummer Cisco Ryder. If you like your music mixed with a political message, this song will be one you add to your play list.

The other song is “Jedidiah 1777.” The song uses real historical correspondence to tell its tale of life during the period of the Revolutionary War. The artist does a great job of conveying the tale with her voice. I’ve always enjoyed this kind of song ever since I heard “Alexander The Great” by Iron Maiden. (Yep, I somehow managed to tie Eliza Gilkyson and Iron Maiden together, I wonder how many reviewers could pull that one off).

The Bad
A recurring theme with some of the CD’s I’ve been listening to lately is having the lyrics that are printed in the booklet not matching what is being sung in the songs. The trend continues here. The changes are minute in reality, but I happen to like reading the lyrics as the song plays, and it’s distracting when the words are different from page to song.

I liked the song “Bellarosa” in general but the lyrics are in Spanish, and I’ve never been a fan of having to guess what the lyrics are. At least in this case, the English translation is available on Gilkyson’s website. The opening track “Borderline” is pretty decent, but when the title of the song is sung, it’s extended far longer than it needs be. The word is three syllables long, yet it’s stretched out to about 10 syllables. I didn’t care for the song “Requiem” at all. The vocal track did absolutely nothing for me.

The Verdict
I liked this album. However, I didn’t feel as drawn in to it as I did her previous album. While I generally try to avoid comparisons between albums, I think this album has a more personal and inclusive feel to the material, while her last album Land of Milk and Honey has a more accessible and dare I say pop sensibility to it.

That criticism aside, it’s really two sides of the same coin. Eliza Gilkyson excels at either style she employs and while there are a couple of songs that really don’t do much for me, this is yet another solid release and I can only hope this gets her continued critical praise and draws in a new crowd of listeners for her.

Did You Know?
Singer Shawn Colvin appeared on two tracks on Paradise Hotel. She supplied backing vocals for “Man Of God” and did vocal work and provided acoustic guitar on “Calm Before The Storm.”

Eliza Gilkyson released a 20-song collection of past material called Retrospecto in July. The album includes the song “A Little Star Came Down” that she recorded as a child.

Rating: out of 5

-- Jay Roberts