South African Female Vocalist : Lesley Rae Dowling (fwd)

[kuyper@iplan.co.za (Kuyper Hoffman)]

I have been meaning to "review" the latest offering by a lady from
our neck of the woods, but I'm generally not very good at that sort
of thing, so I kinda sat back and forgot about it until I found
someone else's review in a magazine.  I include that review below,
together with some of my own comments.

The review is from a "girly" magazine (which I _don't_ buy, not this
one anyway :-) called Scope [ not exactly of the same standard as
Penthouse or Playboy, of which we also have local versions ] and is
not particularly flattering to Lesley Rae.

Very rough biog:  LRD lives in Stellenbosch, the heart of the South
African Winelands, just outside Cape Town, on a farm with her
husband.  She has been on the SA Music Scene for years and has
released a few albums.  This is the only one I have bought.

Her voice is what's really appealing, although it's a rather critical
appreciation.  It is quite unique, very deep, but, I feel, very
controlled.  I guess you could almost call it haunting.

The album: Unbounded Waters, shows LRD (or certainly a woman) lying
on a beach, curled up in a foetal position, sand encrusted amongst
seaweed, a fish and some flotsam (including a pumpkin!).

Some big names from the SA Music Scene make it onto the credit
lists, but most of them will be meaningless to most of you :-)

Of note are Exec Prod Benjy Mudie (incidentally, he probably has the
most comprehensive collection of Jimi Hendrix collectables and bootlegs
in South Africa), Mauritz Lotz (an ace guitarist in the Joe Satriani
vein, although he's much toned down as heard here) and Producer,
Alan Lazaar.

[ George Marino at Stirling Sound, NYC, mastered the album.  Now I
think I know his name from elsewhere, don't ask me where, though ]

Lazaar is also involved with "Mango Groove" - another successful
local band who have moved into the International market with their
blend of Black Township music, "westernized" for the popular market.
They appeared live via Satellite for an AIDS benefit (at Wembley?) a
couple of years ago with a track called (I think) Special Star.  I
may be biased, but their appearance was better than the crossing
made to U2 in San Francisco.

The strangest of her co-stars is Nico Carstens on accordion.  He is
better known in SA for his "boere-musiek" bands.  Boere Musiek
(literally farmer music) is a traditional music form, very popular
with the Afrikaans population (I was Afrikaans speaking until the
age of 4) dating back to the days of the Boer war (and probably
earlier to our own "frontier" days).  The accordion (or smaller
version called the Concertina) is an integral instrument in their
music, but has also previously made the cross-over to western pop as
used by Juluka (later Savuka) with front-man Johnny Clegg.  Clegg is
a "white Zulu" [his terminology] who learnt to play western
instruments the traditional Zulu way (which includes totally
different tuning methods on a guitar and a re-arrangement of
concertina buttons).

Geez, this posting is having less-and-less to do with LRD (let alone
KaTe :-) and more with our own home-grown!

OK, here's the article as it appeared in Scope, May 27, 1994, p105:

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Lesley Rae Dowling - Unbounded Waters

by Martin Hendy

Songs should not last more than five minutes unless they have something
special to offer, and the only "special" song here - Trade - is one of
the few which doesn't go over the five minute mark.

Lesley's eloquent protest against the ivory trade (co-written with Mango
Groove's keyboardist, Alan Lazaar) is currently enjoying healthy
exposure, but little else warrants such attention.  Most of it is
introspective, with Lesley unburdening herself in Kate Bush mode.

For example, _Will_I_Ever_Get_Over_You_ expresses similar sentiments to
_You're_the_One_ from _The_Red_Shoes_, but the sparse backing hangs on
for three minutes after Lesley has stopped singing, and Lazaar hits a
few dud piano notes in the process.  Is this intentional, perhaps
symbolising an affair gone sour?

Yep, Lesley's got the blues, and she even covers Robert Johnson's
_Stones_In_My_Passway_ (complete with slide guitar), as well as the
reflective _Turn,_Turn,_Turn_, which she sings exactly the way you'd
expect her to.
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As mentioned, Trade is the "special" song and is currently enjoying
healthy airplay.  It does have a message that is very close to our
hearts in Africa, where Elephant and Rhino are frequently poached
for nothing more than their tusks or horns.  The populations are
dwindling, but conservationists are fighting hard and it seems that
the battle is slowly swinging back in the favour of the animals.

The two covers, Turn, Turn, Turn by Pete Seeger and Stones in My
Passway by Robert Johnson are great, but I'm not sure that they fit
in with the rest of the album.

Well, that's my bit, I hope someone found this a little bit interesting!

Cheers

Kuyper
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