Review: Patty Giurleo

Who knows what brings people to certain places in their lives? Patty Giurleo, a singer-songwriter who splits her time between Boston and New York, is left-handed and that may have played a part in determining her path in the music world. She says, "I'm left-handed so I had trouble with piano lessons, and clarinet. The first instrument that I could actually play right-handed was guitar, which I started playing in high school. I don't know why it never occurred to me to get a left-handed one. Anyway, my first paid gig was a wedding that I sang at in high school—I was about 16. I sang "Autumn Leaves," and not well." Luckily, she persevered and after playing the acoustic singer-songwriter scene for the past few years, is beginning to attract attention.

Giurleo’s first release, Longtime, garnered rave reviews. Sevensongs is a combination of a few songs from the 1999 release and a few new ones that will be featured on an upcoming new CD, Ensemble. Giurleo’s music is somewhere "between jazz, folk, and pop" and although not easy to define, is easy to listen to. There is a pleasant lilt in her melodies and a nice balance between vocals and instrumentation.

Giurleo is a talented songsmith. The album is seemingly mellow and easy; however, many of the songs contain some pretty hefty images. Giurleo crafts her songs like a sculptor. She says, "I went to NYU and I have a degree in English so I studied the writing process from an academic standpoint. Editing, scanning, meters, the whole thing. So I always had a really tough criteria that I used for lyrics—like would a person ever really say this or think this? Could this ever really happen? I am hard on myself when it comes to editing myself. It takes me forever to write a song—weeks, sometimes months. And then I rewrite it a few times. I would actually like to get away from working in this ultra-self conscious way."

The songs are smart and very well crafted. They reach into your soul. "Belladonna" is an alluring tune that tells of a woman searching for a way to poison her lover. "Halfway House" [MP3 file from her web site] is perhaps one of the most haunting tunes about a passing affair with an ex-convict. Giurleo says, "‘Halfway House’ is the most personal song I've written. I think it is the least vague and the most unpretentious one. I hate it when I sound all depressed and melodramatic, which I have a tendency to do." Also included are "Whistles Went Off In My Mind," "Galliano," "Hole In One," "Radiant City" and the jazz standard "I Fall in Love Too Easily." Sevensong is short, but a great listen. It’s just whetting the appetite for the new release.—Sara Barss