Sarah McCoy

Sarah McCoy – Blood Siren (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 46:25 minutes | 483 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records

Her hoarse, unique voice is gripping from the start. A voice like a descendant of Nina Simone wrapped up in a coat sewn in New Orleans. Following in the footsteps of her illustrious elder, Sarah McCoy is like a fairground attraction. A soul diva with blond mane, inhabited by the most poisonous ghosts of jazz, blues, folk and rock’n’ roll. A strong personality burdened by the torments of life. Like a second cousin of Billie Holiday, Amy Winehouse, Tom Waits or Janis Joplin, or even good old Dr. John… After singles and concerts where the intense McCoy revealed her raging side, her album Blood Siren, produced by Chilly Gonzales and Renaud Letang, is contrastingly calm. A calm facade of course. A rage that’s controlled on the outside but still very real on the inside. Sometimes, the American woman’s playing has the naivety and sincerity of pieces played on a toy piano. Perhaps a way to highlight the childish despair of her songs. The Death Of A Blackbird, a superb instrumental that testifies to her classical training, reveals a certain solitude. The shamanic Devil’s Prospects feels like a New Orleans voodoo tale, with all the stickiness of the night and flavors of gin woven in… Take your time to understand Blood Siren. Soak up its melodies and lyrics. This lady easily could have played her larger than life card. She could have belted down the microphone to attract onlookers. Sarah McCoy proves with this record that her art is deeper and will last longer than an evening spent at the circus…  – Marc Zisman

(more…)

Sarah McCoy – High Priestess (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 38:46 minutes | 394 MB | Genre: Alternative
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Gentle Threat LTD

Sarah McCoy’s second album produced by Renaud Letang with Chilly Gonzales.

“High Priestess” compositions dig deeper and deeper into «the dissection and questioning of self and mental health with a painful but gentle musical knife», to reveal an artist in constant evolution. It’s a «thermonuclear» album, Sarah says, with deep, bubbling bass, synths, beats, dark piano and, of course, her ever-haunting vocal incantation that challenges the so-called certainties of reality and gives post-apocalyptic textures to the whole. Includes a poem dedicated to Sarah’s mentor, Chilly Gonzales.

(more…)