Peg Simone

With Secrets From The Storm, NYC-based singer and guitarist Peg Simone has put a remarkable avant-garde spin on the blues, collaborating with writer Holly Anderson and fellow Table Of The Elements star Jonathan Kane, who assists on the epic opening cut 'Levee/1927', a radical and poetic take on the original ('When The Levee Breaks') by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. This is quite some opening, shaping an incredible twenty-two minutes over which Kane adds his guitar and kick drum, leaving you with a dark, and starkly modernised take on classic Delta blues sounds. Taking a story penned by Anderson, Simone proves herself a powerful narrator, adding multiple layers of electric guitar to the mix. It's hard to compare Simone's sound to anyone else currently out there. You might draw parallels with other great TOTE contributors such as Loren Connors or John Fahey, though there's a haunting discordance and general air of foreboding running through these songs. 'Boilermakers' comes with the kind of intoxicating menace you'd associate with one of Kim Gordon's darker Sonic Youth contributions, but once again, it's a devotion to the spirit of the blues that dominates the piece. After more angular reworkings of rootsy templates on 'Mirst & Avel' and the brilliant 'Henry', the album draws to a close with 'Oh Holy Night'. Here, Simone conjures a more abstract soundscape around a spoken-word performance, lending drifting piano phrases, sparse percussion and a droning root note to the piece. Secrets From The Storm is an inspired album, and one of the most exciting Table Of The Elements releases in some time. Recommended.