VANISHA GOULD

WHAT AN INTERESTING GIRL

Cellar Records

Vanisha Gould, vocals/composer; Chris McCarthy, piano; Charlie Lincoln, bass; Samuel Bolduc, drums.

Singer songwriter Vanisha Gould is back with a new album of original music. This album follows her 2024 release, “She’s Not Shiny, She’s Not Smooth” with a single called “Demure” that was named one of NPR’s Best Songs of 2024.

Gould continues with her unique view of things she obsesses over, like falling in love. She explains this in her song “I Like A Boy.”

Later, she starts out with a familiar Billy Holliday blues tune that quickly turns into her own lyrical story about the various men she’s dating in her explanation of “Borough Blues.”  One is ugly, one is old and rich, another is a sweet man in the Bronx who makes her stutter and scat sing. Vanisha scats her way through this tune, with Chris McCarthy on piano trading fours with Samuel Bolduc on drums.

Vanisha’s fourth track presents a long instrumental introduction with her voice sliding into the arrangement over a minute into the song. Then, a very improvised sounding melody begins. She offers a one-time-down story that unfolds as the “title tune”; “What An Interesting Girl.”  Gould’s voice is that of a griot or storyteller, not necessarily a jazz chanteuse. Clearly, she’s a songwriter first and foremost.

“Look This Way” has a great melody.  I can imagine what a horn player would do with this tune. Pianist Chris McCarthy, who sometimes co-writes with Gould, offers a creative solo.  Then bassist Charlie Lincoln does the same, plucking his double bass alive with creative phrasing.

“Fool Me Twice” is a sultry ballad that describes taking an old lover back, regardless of the consequences. The final tune is opened by Lincoln’s bass.  He bows the strings of his big bad instrument to introduce “Lament/The Devil.” This entire production reminds me of a one-woman theatrical show. Gould’s tune “The Devil” has a great, poetic lyric.  On the hook she sings, “When you look him in the eye, the devil looks a lot like you and I.”

Her compositions give the listener food for thought.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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