CD REVIEW: Curtis revs up classics with string band sound

By Diana Nollen

Award-winning folk singer Catie Curtis, who has been dazzling audiences at CSPS since the mid-'90s, is taking a slightly different turn on her 10th CD, “Hello, Stranger.”

The native New Englander is going a little bit country on several cuts, singing to a string band of Nashville heavyhitters on all the cuts.

Some of the tunes will be familiar to her fans, while others are covers such classics as “Tuesday's Dead,” by Cat Stevens. All have new arrangements and new stylings.

I'm not crazy about all the twanginess of the title track, although it does remind me of the old-timey sounds from one of my favorite movies, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” I just prefer Curtis' natural folky sound that adds an air of slightly breathy wonderment to her typically lovely lyrics.

The country leanings work better on Don White's “Be Sixteen with Me.” Curtis' arrangement drips with a twangy talk style that revs up the fun in this joy ride where the parents go wild, climb out a window and steal their daughter's wheels in the middle of the night.

Themes of love and social consciousness dominate the disc.

The opening track is one of the prettiest, where Curtis sings her own “100 Miles” over a lightly skipping beat from Alison Brown's banjo picking before Stuart Duncan adds some sweet fiddling. “You carried me when I fell / Can I carry you / Can I love that well” is typical of Curtis' soul-searching lyrics.

Other poetic highlights are her sweet and sentimental “Dad's Yard,” where you can go to find treasures, love and hope; “Passing Through,” with its message of leaving the world a better place by changing the world within your reach; and “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free.”

The final two cuts of “Deliver Me” and “Saint Lucy” are Curtis at her storytelling best, backed by some kickin' strings, one boot-scoot short of a hoedown.

She returns to CSPS in Cedar Rapids at 8 p.m. Thursday, guaranteed to be a good time, with maybe a few surprises.

FAST TAKE

Title: “Hello, Stranger”

Artist: Catie Curtis

Label: Compass Records

Performance: 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids; with opening singer Gregory Douglass

Tickets: $17 in advance at www.iowatix.com or $21 at the door

Information: www.legionarts.org/music/Curtis.htm or http://catiecurtis.com