Review: Michelle Malone’s “Slings & Arrows”

By Paul T. Mueller

Georgia singer-songwriter Michelle Malone puts forth another fine effort with the wide-ranging Slings & Arrows. As always, she’s equally at home with quiet, folky material and flat-out rockers, and this 10-song collection adds other musical flavors, notably funk and soul, to the mix. Lyrical themes include perseverance (“Just Getting Started,” which name-checks Moses and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., among others); tolerance and self-respect (“Love Yourself”), and defiance (“Civil War” and “Boxing Gloves”).

A couple of songs co-written with fellow Georgian Eliot Bronson explore different aspects of romance – earthier in the Motown-ish “Sugar on My Tongue” and more ethereal in the sweet ballad “The Flame.” Malone enlists another veteran of the Georgia folk-rock scene, Shawn Mullins, as her duet partner on Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” Their performances dance on the fine line between passionate and over-the-top, but in a fun way.

Malone handles most of the vocals here, as well as extensive work on guitars, mandolin and harmonica. Her singing and playing combine power and finesse, and in her role as producer she gets the most out of her own performances and those of her bandmates. Other contributors include Doug Kees and Peter Stroud (electric guitar), Robby Handley (bass), Christopher Burroughs (drums) and Trish Land (percussion.) Land, a prolific visual artist, also created the CD’s cover art.