Bozulich, Carla

Bozulich, Carla

I'm Gonna Stop Killing

Dicristina Stair Builders

Carla Bozulich (leader of the defunct Geraldine Fibbers) extends the thread of her Red Headed Stranger as a thank-you to old fans and a welcome to new ones. This EP-priced full-length album contains two songs from Red Headed Stranger (one a duet with Willie Nelson), new explorations of music from that album, and seven unreleased live tunes, including original stuff from The Geraldine Fibbers and Scarnella, a Neil Young cover, a Marianne Faithful cover, and some world class improvisations. A distinct common bond, pathological honesty, and subversive musicality drive the music deeply home. These songs were all recorded during tours that surrounded the conception and aftermath of recording Bozulich's version of Red Headed Stranger - a classic '70s concept album by Willie Nelson - that Nelson himself ordained "hot stuff" and on three songs of which he played. The musicians on I'm Gonna Stop Killing are fascinating and well established in their own rights, and together create remarkable, collaborative music. Nels Cline, Devin Hoff, Carla Kihlstedt, Marka Hughes, Jenny Scheinman, Scott Amendola, Todd Sickafoose, Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith, and Dina Maccabee challenge Bozulich to go even further at every turn. Nelson's sparse, guitar-based renditions are stretched into eerie electronic soundscapes and haunting extrapolations of themes, bound by Bozulich's powerful voice. The desperate isolation of Nelson's original is always present and serves as a metaphor for the outsider status of Bozulich and others whose country music is truly alternative.

Bozulich, Carla

Red Headed Stranger

Dicristina Stair Builders

Carla Bozulich has wanted to perform and record this classic Willie Nelson concept album for a long time. She never dreamed that Willie Nelson himself would be interested in playing on the album. Sure enough, a few weeks after he'd heard a tape on his tour bus, Carla was in his Austin studio recording duets with him. When frequent collaborator Nels Cline (who Jazz Times called "the world's most dangerous guitarist") formed the all-instrumental Nels Cline Singers with Scott Amendola on drums and Devin Hoff on upright bass, it turned out that they were all closet country fanatics. There was a convergence of sorts around The Red Headed Stranger, and Carla's heartfelt compulsion finally found its way to the material plane. Her idea of combining seemingly odd elements (jazz, improvisation, raga, caberet) with a traditionally country feel was brought to life by these highly inventive players. During a 24-date tour in April, 2002, Tzadik recording artist Jenny Scheinman joined the quartet on violin for a few shows and added soul and character to the recordings. Carla Bozulich is best known as the powerful singer The Geraldine Fibbers, initially a strictly country outfit, later on concerned with the universe's heaviest dark passions, and for her often instrumental, by turns organized and anarchistic work with Nels Cline as Scarnella. Before that she was the gamine howler in the groove/sex/assault outfit Ethyl Meatplow. After several years of experimenting with instrumental and/or improvised music, Carla is veering back into song-oriented territory. She has one...