SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SHANNON JAE RIDOUT – TWO BUSTED BOOTS AND A BROKEN HEART

SHANNON JAE RIDOUT
TWO BUSTED BOOTS AND A BROKEN HEART
ANTI-CORP MUSIC

Back in the mid-s60s, when Vanguard Records were all the rage on the folk scene, it was practically an honour to get a chance to record a solo folk/singer-songwriter album where it was just the artist, her/his voice, songs and a single instrument or two.

These days such albums have become a sort of rare occasion, with the artist being too courageous or truly able with something to say to attempt something like that. Essentially, you would really have to be a good musical storyteller to pull it off and come up with a consistent, substantial album of pure solo music.

After 10 years of complete silence, folk artist Shannon Jae Ridout is attempting something like that with her new album Two Busted Boots and a Broken Heart. Ridout has her reasons for a decade of silence, and one might just be the fact that this album is a collection of songs Ridout wrote during that period across the U.S.

And yes, it all lies in how good a storyteller she is to go completely solo with her guitar, occasional harmonica, voice and the key here, her lyrics. And yes, she was right to wait it out with this collection of traveling stories, passing ‘the test’ with flying colors.

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