The Washington Post

Smothering Instinct By Chrissie Dickinson

a freelance writer and former editor of the Journal of Country Music Wednesday, August 18, 2004; Page C03

In 1972, when Laura Love was 12 and her sister 13, their mother, Wini, fashioned nooses in the living room so the three could hang themselves in order to join God. But first Wini instructed Love to hang the family cat, Sugar Plum, from the curtain rod in the bathroom. In Wini's ghastly delusion, no one in the house, not even the girls' pet, was to be left behind to suffer. In a wily twist of fate, Sugar Plum slipped free of her noose and sauntered back into the living room, just as mother and daughters were about to step off their chairs and into eternity. The girls tossed away their nooses, stepped down from their death chairs and hugged the cat. The sight cracked Wini's resolve. "And so it ended, [in] a reprieve," Love writes matter-of-factly from the distance of three decades. "For the want of a sturdy knot, the trajectory of our lives had once again been altered."

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Copyright 2003, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Style

At Birchmere, Some Folk Worth Meeting

Birchmere attendees who went to see Kris Delmhorst and Laura Love, on Tuesday's bill with Catie Curtis, got four great artists instead of two -- and that was even before Curtis's set. Delmhorst, a rising star of the acoustic folk scene, garnered a reception that proved her many appearances on local stages have paid off.

Accompanied by fellow New Englander Mark Erelli, she offered many of her finest compositions, including the recent "Juice + June" and "East of the Mountains." Her sweet, mellow voice was a perfect match for clean, spare lyrics and melodies that hinted at bluegrass, blues and Joni Mitchell-style jazz fusion without being beholden to any genre. And Erelli, a critically acclaimed roots musician, stretched his rock wings with muted but powerful electric solos that melded perfectly with Delmhorst's acoustic strumming.

Less subtle, but more complex, was the Laura Love Duo. Love's plangent, sometimes acrobatic singing soared above the deep notes of her electric bass. Her partner, Jen Todd, offered the sonic middle ground with a dusky, bluesy voice and an extroverted hand on the guitar.

The two wielded an awesome power on their chant-filled, funk-inflected songs, including the chilling, compelling slave-auction tale "Octoroon" and the defiant anti-Bush declaration "I Want You Gone."

Along with Curtis's set, these performances created an embarrassment of riches -- and yet left listeners wanting more from every performer.

-- Pamela Murray Winters

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