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" PAMELA MEANS: SINGLE BULLET THEORY
WIRL RECORDS
WIRL1005-D(42m 07)
Strolling through Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachussetts recently, my ears were tickled by some very tasty acoustic guitar picking and an exceptionally passionate voice drifting through the midday air. The sound was emanating from busker Pamela Means, and I stopped to listen. Excellent buskers are ten a penny in Cambridge, which is one of the biggest centres of folk music in the States. Every 60s folkie worth his/her salt played the coffee houses here, and it’s where Tracy Chapman emerged from in the 90s, so to be worth stopping for in Harvard Square, you’ve got to be very special indeed.
Means is, quite simply, superb and, if there’s any justice in the world, I won’t see her on a street corner next time. Her guitar playing is very tasty indeed, her songs are powerfully melodic and beautifully constructed, her lyrics kick hard, and her voice ranges from tender to seething to outraged, depending on her subject matter. "O.D.", about how American oil policies precipitated the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, is a must-hear; "Restless" is a gorgeous love song set to ridiculously speedy picking and her version of Billie Holiday’s "Strange Fruit" is heart-rending. The album isn’t widely available here yet, but you can get it through Amazon or, better yet, via her website, www.pamelameans.com.
HiFi News Magazine, UK
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