Review: Zelda Starfire – ‘Wommando’
Like a blast out of a double-barreled scatter gun, the nine-song album Wommando from Seattle one woman band artist Zelda Starfire hits you full in the face with grinding guitar, kick drum and caterwauling vocals. Recorded live in the studio by Steve Feasely at his workshop Love Studios, Seattle. Wommando marks both the new reality of indie recordings that are released as a digital album only and a throwback to quick and dirty, low budget records of yesteryear.
Zelda opens with the furious country punk, “Never Drinking Again,” pounding hard on acoustic slide guitar and blowing crude harmonica while delivering the tone of the morning after with the great line “I reek of whiskey, there’s guilt in my hair.” The fever pitch of “Chicken Killin” easily lives up to its title. Starfire refines her gig a notch as she recants the ill-fated tale of Kansas cowboys who hired a water witcher to lead then to water on “Water Witch,” adding some clever finger picking and a June Carter growl to her vocals.
Jenny Hill joins in on violin adding long lyrical notes to the time shifting ballad “Home,” and helps build the tension to the fiery punked up Celtic reel “Grand Daddy Long Legs.” Some crazy distortion on the vocals punches up the energy of the hill country blues stomp “In My Drawer,” then Zelda tries her best to be a one woman acoustic Metallica for “Union Horse.” The lilting ballad “In Your Sleep,” closes the set with Jenny Hill returning with her fiddle as melodic counter point to Zelda’s’ breathy vocal on a siren’s lullaby. Watch the video for that one HERE.
(Listen to ‘Wommando’ below via Bandcamp and you can get more info about Zelda Starfire at on Facebook HERE.)