凱薩琳·羅素 / 我心已碎 Catherine Russell / InsideThis Heart Of Mine (World Village)

Revered blues-jazz-R&B singer Catherine Russell's third album for World Village / Harmonia Mundi, Inside This Heart Of Mine (468092 - street date April 13, 2010), showcases the ever-deepening interpretive wiles of her ripe, honey-dipped alto, as she personifies the living heart and proud history of each of the 13 songs that make up this set.

 

Opening with the title tune, a Fats Waller torcher that paces like a disappointed lover pulling an all-nighter, she then launches into All the Cats Join In, a sepia-tone snapshot from the heyday of 1940s swing.

 

On Troubled Waters, she is a misunderstood but undeniably shady lady, her musky musings shadowed by a scorching muted trumpet and speaking solo piano that abet -- and perhaps contradict -- her hopes of redemption.

 

November, a lyrical, poetic vignette, likens the dark turn of the year to loneliness and heartbreak, while a plangent banjo and rueful fiddle mark Just Because You Can, in which a man is warned to straighten out or take the consequences.

 

Whether demanding stamina from lover (Long, Strong and Consecutive), playfully bemoaning the evils of the demon alcohol (Quiet Whiskey), or celebrating New Orleans-style swagger (Struttin' With Some Barbeque), Catherine is never less than achingly feminine, impassioned, genuine, vulnerable -- and utterly indomitable.