Cheyenne Marie Mize
(Yep Roc)
Cheyenne Marie Mize, out of Louisville, is nothing if not self-assured, taking up every inch of sonic space in her latest six-song EP, strutting and stomping and occasionally revealing heartbreaking vulnerability in a broad range of rock and Americana styles. A versatile singer, she navigates the spoke-sung, blues-y chants of stand-out "Wishing Well," the tremulous self-laceration of "Call Me Beautiful," the road-house diva-isms of "Going Under" and the indie rocking directness of "Keep It" without a miss. She even plays all the instruments - raucous washboard scrapes and cowbell rattles, plaintive guitars and enough piano rolls and slides to make a Western's saloon doors rattle.
Not that Mize couldn't have help if she asked for it. She first caught the spotlight working with Will Oldham on his Among the Gold compilation of late 19th century American parlor music. From there, she joined the Dear Companion tour with nouveau traditionalists Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore. We Don't Need, a six-song EP, is her first release since the debut full-length Before Lately in 2010, and the first for the Yep Roc label.
But no, she goes it alone - and that means she does what she pleases. She hop-skips between genres and styles willy-nilly, without even a look over the shoulder to see if you're following along. Looking for another shot of the sassy, savvy, junk-percussion-punched talking blues of "Wishing Well"? You'll look in vain. Transfixed by the excruciating honesty "Call Me Beautiful"? Hit the repeat because there's nothing else like it on the record. Indeed, after these two songs, the intensity diminishes markedly, through by-the-numbers Americana rave-ups ("Going Under"), 1990s indie-girl confessions ("Keep It"), and a bizarrely different, electronically-altered dream ballad ("Back Around") at the end.
The shifts are so drastic that you'll catch yourself thinking: Wait, what record is this? Still? You're kidding.
None of it is bad, but none is quite so good as the first two songs. I'm not saying I want a whole album of "Wishing Wells" or even a side of "Call Me Beautifuls" but when something works this well, why not push it further?
DOWNLOAD: "Wishing Well" "Call Me Beautiful" JENNIFER KELLY
