Four years after the gorgeously crafted, self-produced Moon Goes Missing, Texas guitarist, singer, and songwriter
Carolyn Wonderland released her Alligator debut,
Tempting Fate in 2021. In the interim, she spent three years as
John Mayall's lead guitarist in
the Bluesbreakers (she was the first woman to hold that post).
Tempting Fate was produced by
Dave Alvin (who plays guitar on three songs), and
Wonderland is accompanied by her road band -- bassist Bobby Perkins and drummer Kevin Lance -- and guests including pianist/organist
Red Young,
Cindy Cashdollar on lap steel, backing vocalist Shelley King, and accordionist Jan Fleming, with
Marcia Ball and
Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
Tempting Fate features six originals and four covers and is less polished than its predecessor. Opener "Fragile Peace and Certain War" offers her trademark deep blue, rocking slide licks as her voice, guitar, and Lance's kick drum roil before Perkins' one-two bass bump sets it choogling. "Texas Girls and Her Boots" is a roadhouse boogie with
Ball's piano driving the band. In excellent voice,
Wonderland delivers her cleverly penned lyrics with sly joy as her guitar break bites atop
Alvin's rhythm playing. "Broken Hearted Blues" features a swelling B-3; it's angry, sad, and determined. The guitar fills and solos snarl and churn against the beat and her passionate singing straddles the line between a roar and a croon. The band delivers a smoking read of
Mayall's "The Laws Must Change." Rather than follow the original's harmonica-driven acoustic chart,
Wonderland engages pure electricity with biting six-string riffs, organ, breakbeat snares, and a funky bassline. Her solo burns into the progression and elevates the groove. The reading of
Billy Joe Shaver's "Honey Bee" weds West Texas honky tonk to Cajun zydeco with wiry leads, fills, filthy accordion, clattering snares, and tom-toms.
Wonderland's singing is expressive, romantic, and sensual. She turns the record on its head with "On My Feet Again," a slinky jazz-blues that showcases sophisticated vocal phrasing and elegant, canny
Lonnie Johnson-esque guitar fills and chord voicings. Two covers close out the set. The first is a silvery, loose, backporch version of
Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" in duet with
Gilmore. The pair's voices blend seamlessly with the tune's blues root placed front and center.
Alvin plays lead guitar on
Wonderland's reading of
Jerry Garcia and
Robert Hunter's "Loser." A sinister folk blues at heart, the grain of
Wonderland's mournful voice weds blues and gospel.
Alvin adds effects-laden psychedelic leads, ratcheting up the intensity until it explodes in an orgy of distorted guitars, cracking drums, and swelling keyboards. On
Tempting Fate,
Wonderland's originals stack up nicely against her cover choices, but it's her astonishing playing and soulful, sophisticated singing that place this record above all others in her catalog. ~ Thom Jurek