Nothing Suspicious About Her Talent

Mon., May 22, 2000

Kathy Bula East Valley

Shannon Curfman “Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions”

“She’s only 14, and she scares me,” says Jonny Lang of his friend Shannon Curfman, and with good reason. Her voice, songwriting and electric guitar playing leave him in the dust.

With a voice that can go from Melissa Etheridge-rough to crystal clear in a split second, a songwriting ability far beyond her years, and guitar solos that draw comparisons to Jimi Hendrix, Curfman is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

“Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions” is a very impressive debut for Curfman. It draws its name from a line in Sheryl Crow’s “Hard To Make a Stand,” a very mediocre cover of which is contained on Curfman’s disc. But the weaknesses end there.

“No Riders,” written from the perspective of a train-riding hobo, is one of Curfman’s many lyrical excursions into unknown territory, but she pulls it off with impassioned vocals and some incredible guitar work, making it one of the best cuts on the album.

Her arrangement of The Band’s classic “The Weight” is so much fun, one almost wishes the original had been done that way.

The peak of the album is the mind-boggling “Playing With Fire,” a song in which she makes some very profound observations about the links between the questionable mental states and untimely demises of Hendrix and bluesman Robert Johnson, stating that they’ve “got their fingers on my strings” and that she wants to “let it roll over me, let it take me til I’m free and I’m playing with fire.”

Able to connect on a personal level with her lyrics, she delivers a chilling vocal and a guitar performance that makes you feel like Hendrix and Johnson’s ghosts must have been right there in the studio with her.

There are a few pop-ish ballads that are nice but sound a little pale in comparison to the blues numbers, but all in all this is an astounding album by a phenomenal talent who will only get more formidable as she gets older.

You’ve been warned.

Grade: A

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