A friend recently remarked he missed chicks who rock; ladies of the Runaways, (Lita Ford and Joan Jett), or Vixen 80's brand of leather, hair and crunchy metal genre. Which got me to thinking...
Although I could readily name the 60's and 70's ladies who rock, (Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Lydia Pense, Genya Ravan, Maggie Bell, Terry Garthwaite, Toni Brown and more), there has been rather a large black musical hole in the 90's.
Sure, Joan Osborne, Natalie Merchant, Sheryl Crow, Rickie Lee Jones and various incarnations of Seattle's Wilson sisters shared elements of rock, but where was that leather clad, bleached or over-dyed big hair, raspy vocals and in your face attitude which made women who rock so fun before?
But then I didn't know about Canada's answer to heavy metal thunder, Sass Jordan. Born in England, raised in the Montreal, Jordan started out playing bass, honing her Rod Stewart-styled vocals in smoky bars and late night clubs.
An 1988 indie album won her a coveted Juno award, (Canadian equivalent of a Grammy), and her 1992 mainstream debut, (actually her second release), Racine, was good enough to spawn 3 Top Ten hits. Jordan opened for several of my favorite bands including Arc Angels, Joe Cocker, Steve Miller and Exteme, garnering a larger following and creating a word-of-mouth buzz.
Enough buzz for Billboard Magazine to hail her as Album Rock's Top Female Artist for '92. Her subsequent release, 1994's Rats is even better!
The Music
Featuring strong, earthy vocals and proudly proclaiming her Faces/Rod Stewart/Rolling Stones roots, the darkly themed Rats focuses on relationships lost and others destroyed by drug addiction, as well as painful rebirth.
Filled with plenty of crunchy rock and hook-filled pop metal tracks, there are also beautiful melodies and excellent harmonies.
Rats features one of my favorite 90's rock guitarists, Stevie Salas, frontman for Colorcode. A chemistry exists between Sass' singing/songwriting and Salas' guitar playing/songwriting abilities that elevates this above many hard rock CDs of the otherwise alt-dominated 90's. The duo also shared co-producing duties along with Nick DiDia, (engineering genius with Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots).
Jordan indicates she wanted to rock harder, more gritty and down to earth on this less polished, less sweetness-and-light dozen tracks. After the slamming petal to the metal intro track, Damaged, Sass easily accomplishes this with the very different, but linked themes of P'ssin' Down and the brilliant crunch of Slave, where shredded vocals match both guitar solos and lyrics hinting at a close's friend heroin abuse:
Big wheels will turn/Crushing you into your hell/And there you will burn/Until you crawl back to your wishing well/Many years have passed since you fell/And you've forgotten what it is to be well/You're a slave/You're a slave/You're a slave/Until you set yourself free.
P'ssin' Down, on the other hand, begins slowly with beautiful guitar chords and a shimmering overlay of background vocals from Jordan and shredder Ritchie Kotzen, (Poison, Mr. Big). The title is slang, referring to a hard, cats and dogs type rain. As the vocals come in, the song's power builds as Sass laments the loss of a relationship to drugs, in a raspy voice reminiscent of Steve Marriot, which illustrates a less glamorous look at rock and roll's sometimes addictive underside:
I was crawling on the way home that morning/I was shot down and tied/You were strung out and high/And just when I thought it was over/And I might win/You slammed the door to make love/To your old lady heroin.
Other hard rockers like High Road Easy, Head and Honey, easily show Sass' unapologetic roots: Rod Stewart and The Faces, Rolling Stones, Black Crowes, ACDC and even Red Hot Chili Peppers, courtesy of Salas' frequent chord changes and rhythm shifts.
One of the finest cuts, I'm Not, borders on alt rock and mines all the despair of a relationship gone bad. Unlike Janis Joplin, and more like Tina Turner, here Jordan's vocals are spot on tender, even lush. Sharing a rich honey contralto with Sun's Gonna Rise, you'd think these were upbeat, positive numbers if you didn't have the liner notes to tell you different.
On I'm Not, Jordan seems to be telling herself that life is back to normal after a breakup, whatever normal may be:
I guess it's over now/Things are back to normal somehow/I've learned to shut it out/No room for doubt/I'm not feelin' down/My whole world is just upside down/I'm not feelin' at all.
With an early track, which sounds almost unplugged, Sun Gonna Rise's, featuring excellent bass from Carmine Rojas, (David Bowie, Rod Stewart), the diminutive vocalist confesses to making the same mistakes over and over; falling for a lover's emotional blackmail until she's finally had enough. Sass has made a decision to get on with her life, as she tells her soon to be ex:
When the lightning hits the stormy sky/No one cares about who'll be left to cry/And there ain't no reason why/Yes, I know I led the chase before/And the chase is gonna end/Your feelin' sorry for yourself/Don't affect my mental health/I've had enough and it's over.
The guitar work in the last song reminds me strongly on Nuno Bettencourt in one of Extreme's mellower early songs, Hole-Hearted. Another gorgeous melody, Breakin', changes pace with a string arrangement and mellotron. Here Sass' vocals have a deep bluesy vibe, like Paul Rodgers best work with Bad Company.
More crunchy Blues-Rock varies the pace on Wish. Strong guest artists such as bassist Tom Petersson, (Cheap Trick), pepper this production, and add an extra powerful oomph. Shades of Black Crowes permeate this rocker, and Sass enlists the aid of Austin's own Ian Moore, (Joe Ely Band), on killer slide guitar.
The final track, Give, provides another helping of Moore's axe magic, and gives a inspirational nod to fellow Canadian, Mr. Rust himself, Neil Young. Here, Sass turns introspective, and seems ready to love again.
The one cut I couldn't get into was oddly enough, with an Old School Funk favorite of mine, George Clinton. Called Ugly, it opens with Clinton's near spoken, geezer rap. The song would be okay without this, but the words are harsh and jarring. An experimental piece, it falls short, in my opinion. Skip play this one.
In Conclusion
Although it would seem this is a bleak look at the world around us and relationships in particular, it doesn't leave me with that depleted, downer feeling. There is so much high energy and skill here, I am torn between a 4 and 5 rating. It actually scores a 4.5. Yet Epinions offers no half-star increments.
Sass Jordan combines raw, more spontaneous sounding demo tracks here with the final polishing from Michael Wagener, (Metallica, Janet Jackson), whose skill helps to give vocals, shredding guitar solos and crooning backgrounds distinct placement in the mix.
One of Sass' biggest fans ever is Tori Amos. Way back when, Amos' wanted to be a metal maven, and this is still the elegant pianist and vocalist's favorite brand of rock. Surprising? Not really considering her close friendship with a certain NIN frontman.
Sass Jordan has the stage, and the players. She only lacks a larger audience for her cautionary tales, and heartfelt stories. She carries the torch of women who rock, and on Rats, an almost perfect album, she shows us that she can rock hard and gets her Ya Ya's out at the same time.
Fans of the sort of Blues Rock that Izzy Stradlin keeps alive, and bands like Stevie Salas and Kingofthehill perpetuate, may remember another hard rocker named Saraya. At her heaviest, she comes close to Sass Jordan's heavy metal thunder. But unlike Saraya, Jordan's no flash in the pan, one hit wonder. And in a genre that many find cliché, Sass endures.
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