Wildcat (CD - 2006)

Personnel: Muriel Anderson (vocals, acoustic guitar, steel guitar, nylon-string guitar, harp guitar); Duane Eddy, Stanley Jordan (electric guitar); David Davison, David Angell (violin); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Jim Grosjean (viola); Sari Reist, Julie Adams (cello); John Colianni (piano); Danny Gottlieb (drums); Cathy Chalmers, Tom Roady (percussion).

Recording information: Chameleon Sound; Joe Hand Music Productins, Nashville, TN; Tim Jaskoski's Music Recording, Salem, OR; Vertical Sound Studio, Nashville, TN.

Author: Steven King.

Photographers: Muriel Anderson; Jennie Morgan; Amy White.

Muriel Anderson is at heart a singer/songwriter in the grand folk-pop tradition that's existed at least since the days of the Weavers, but her music is also woven through with Brazilian jazz influences in the manner of Baden Powell or Joao Gilberto. It's a unique, playful sound that gives Wildcat a jazzy swing that's far too often missing from this kind of record. Even overtly country-oriented material like the delicate ballad "St. Louis Waltz," which features a very nice Floyd Cramer-like piano part, has the same sort of syncopated drive as neo-bossa nova tunes like "Rio de Janeiro" and the title track. The handful of less rhythmic songs, like the lovely "I'll Never Sing Another Song (Tokyo Lullaby)," are put across through the beauty of Anderson's unostentatious vocal style and her equally graceful guitar playing. The album as a whole might be too gentle and kittenish to live up to the promise of the title, but it's a small, intimate delight anyway. ~ Stewart Mason minimize