Rachael Sage Issue #27

The Blistering Sun (MPress)

By Marisa Torrieri
Published: March 1st, 2006 | 12:00am

I’d heard so much about Rachael Sage that I couldn’t wait to get my music-critic hands on her latest, The Blistering Sun. Sage, a do-it-all Renaissance woman, is renowned for both her songwriting and her dramatic performances (to support Ballads & Burlesque, she reportedly donned a black tutu onstage). She also plays keyboards, sings, dances, acts, and runs her own record label, MPress.

So I was a little disappointed when Sun’s two opening tracks, “Alright, OK” and “Featherwoman,” didn’t jump out at me. While quite lovely and vocally impressive, with Sage’s Tori Amos-like transitions from wispy to soaring soprano, I was ready to write her off.

Then I heard “93 Maidens,” a haunting, passionate song about a student in the Warsaw ghetto, featuring accordion, violin, cello, and multiple guitars. This is Sage the storyteller in her prime — and folk at its finest. Like Sage, The Blistering Sun is a Renaissance work of music and poetry, with bits of horn-filled Cabaret (“Violet or Blue”), spoken word (“Hit Song”), and plenty of emotional, violin- and piano-infused melodies.