Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine: Alice Stuart Can't Find No Heaven.

Burnside 0044

ALICE STUART All the Good Times Arhoolie 9034

Oregon and Seattle-area blues woman Alice Stuart shows the world she's still a gifted singer and guitarist on her newest album. Can't Find No Heaven was released by Burnside Records, a label that has quickly developed a reputation for delivering audio-conscious albums with substance.

In her liner notes, Alice convincingly argues the importance of song interpreters and that they have lost some credibility as of late. If they have, Alice Stuart's new and past work serve to make up for that loss. Backed by simple drums, bass and some harmonica and extra guitar here and there, Stuart does beautiful, touching versions of classics like "Big Boss Man" "Blues in the Bottle," "Drop Down Daddy," [the female version of "Drop Down Mama,"] "Turn Your Money Green" and "Hard Time Killin' Floor."

Stuart and her band would be a nice addition to the folk and blues festival circuit this summer; let's hope she's out there, touring again. Her guitar playing, wonderful voice and delicate phrasing ate too good to be overlooked. Besides, any blues radio DJ will tell you: there still aren't enough good female blues singers out there!

For fans who've just discovered Alice Stuart, the Arhoolie reissue of All the Good Times makes a great companion piece to Can't Find No Heaven. Here are Stuart's first recordings, from 1964, and while her voice is higher and more subtle, it's clear her years of hard living as a regionally touring performer--mostly West Coast and Canada dates--haven't done all that much to her voice. If you listen to All the Good Times and then pop Can `t Find No Heaven into your CD player, you'll find that same delicate phrasing and distinctive voice alluded to above.

Highlights include her original "Beatnik," as well as her covers of familiar blues and folk classics, including "Blackjack David," "Follow Me Honey, I'll Turn Your Money Green," "Stackerlee," "Frankie and Johnny" "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" and "Kassie Jones." She also does "Seven Beers with the Wrong Woman" which became a popular Depression-era drinking blues song, and Tom Paxton's, "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound," at the time of this recording, a current, contemporary tune. This is Alice Stuart's very first recording, and thankfully, good people like Chris Strachwitz at Arhoolie Records have had the good sense to reissue it on compact disc.--RJS