Search - Oh Susanna :: Johnstown (Reis)

Don't You Wanna Be Free-Johnstown's Struggles for Liberation

Peter Walenta | Long Island, New York USA | 06/19/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This record is not about the great Johnstown Flood of the 1880's and the flood if anything may stand metaphorically for flowing away from something. Though rooted in old folk and country traditions, the songs deal with the very present tense need to break free. Canadian folk/alt.country singer Suzie Ungerleider delivers twelve well crafted musings on the need to get away from abusive relationships, murderous criminal acts, physical locations, and just plain old bad love affairs. The music is spare but tastefully embellished with some fine lap steel and Hawaiian hollow-neck guitar playing courtesy of Blue Rodeo's Bob Egan. Oh Susanna sings with a distinctive country twang not unlike her fellow Canadian country-woman, Neko Case. This is a smart and reflective album, but like the girl running in the cover illustration, each song is about urgent movement. The advice of these folk tunes is to walk, run, take a train, a horse, an automobile, and just get out of whatever bad scene one finds onself in. Stark and not without consequences, the choice to break free comes with moral and emotional costs which range from eternal punishment to uncertainty about where one is going to end up. A deceptively complex record, this one is on my list of the Best Canadian Rock Albums, since it forces one to think while listening to some enjoyable sounding traditional country and folk melodies. A real gem!"