The Sunny Side Of Life
Carolyn Eyerly
Patuxent Music Cd-344
Northern Virginia native Carolyn Eyerly’s dulcet voice has long been familiar to bluegrass fans in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Eyerly co-founded and was lead singer for a D.C.-based folk group called Shenandoah Run. Later, she was a founding member of Sweet Yonder, an all-women bluegrass assembly that enjoyed regional popularity.
On her debut solo album, Eyerly deftly explores and mixes and matches her disparate musical influences. On the title tune, a timeless Carter Family celebration of prevailing optimism, her introspective rendition balances out the thematic darkness and light she explores in the course of these 12 cuts, seven of which she wrote.
No less moving is her spirited cover of Curtis Mayfield’s and The Impressions’ gospel-soul classic “People Get Ready.” Eyerly’s songwriting is also inspired, and is at times tinged with a somewhat mysterious otherworldly bent. “Grandpa’s Garden” is a reverential and ethereal tribute to sweet childhood memories and the sort of unconditional love that so many of our grandparents blessed us with.
The emotional flip side is “Your Anger Is A Wall.” This bluesy lament is charged with bitterness and deep romantic frustration over a significant other who refuses to face up to serious anger management problems.
“Red Toad Road” is a particularly strange and haunting ode that paints a sinister and almost hallucinatory vision of some unspoken mystery and menace that may await in the fog and darkness ahead.
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