This is a piano track with a little wind and a slow groove. I don't know why it was, but when I was deep diving on Desert Queen after Pearl played Hackney's Moth Club I couldn't quite get my brain into gear for Step Too Far.
Pearl doesn't write the sort of obvious narrative story like many Americana artists do. In my eyes she isn't an Americana artist actually. She is one of those genre-benders who makes such a variety of tunes it is mad to classify them. Although Pearl channels the sound and aura of Christine McVie I think that she writes lyrics like Stevie Nicks. Stevie talks about writing from the inside out, but whatever you say, her songs are not easy to interpret. They are true song lyrics that mean something to Pearl but not something she totally shares with anyone else, so you have to adapt their meaning to your own life. In my eyes this is true songwriting, much as I love the in-ya-face Country music story songs with the teary beers and the guns and the fighting.
There is a very long introduction to this one, around thirty seconds. It takes time to build. It is a very subtle and nuanced track.
Don't know what I believe in
The moment I open my eyes
Always trying to find some other place
I can't get it verbatim. It's infuriating and cool at the same time. I don't think I need to know all the words. I have just realised what is challenging about this song. Pearl has such a wonderful dreamy singing voice that sometimes I just cannot quite pick up the exact words. This is surely deliberate. I know what she means, without knowing what she is saying precisely.
I have to remind myself, as one of the OG experts in AI from 1999, a computer programmer since the age of 9, that music is an art and not a science. Although Michael Rault might slightly disagree. What's he doing now? He's just twiddling some knobs on the mixing desk at Taurus Rising, but whatever that was, it sounds 0.1% better than it did before.
I don't mind a broken heart
Put it together just to tear it apart
But you crossed the line a thousand times
A step too far
The gist is what we need and the gist is that this guy (here we go...) doesn't know where the boundary is in a relationship. He always does one thing too many. Always rides his luck. She doesn't sound angry to me, she never does, she's too Taurean, but my God! I would fear to tread if I crossed Pearl Charles. One withering look would kill me stone dead. She can stop hearts like that. And not in a good way. If you have a pacemaker, do not approach.
Pearl Charles and Michael Rault have really struck something with their own independent music projects but also with their record company and studio in their desert shack, Taurus Rising. Michael pointed me at a re-interpretation of CSNY's Deja Vu last week. It was recorded by the pair in Joshua Tree but the band is British. Wandering Hearts are so great even my wife loved them in 2 seconds. We ordered the LP and their previous one immediately and have been playing it all week back to front.
Yesterday, news of another Taurus Rising showstopper. Same Ol' Smile's Wild Woman of the Summer and Sun is out now. Of which more next time!
Pearl Charles headlines her own gig tonight at Pappy and Harriet's and I believe there are one or two tickets still available! You guys need to sort it out. I have my ticket for November 6th in London. What is this with booking last minute? You'll stop her heart with that shit.
