| It’s a weird time to be a female
singer-songwriter. With the Lillith Fair now permanently out to pasture, women in rock
have been deprived of an annual, massive stage on which to demonstrate their prowess. Not
that they were necessarily having a hard time of it before the Fair, but it’s
generally accepted women rockers have fallen out of the limelight relative to those
halcyon days.
Of course, that’s nothing that should concern Paulina
Franz. Not yet anyway. The Chicago-based vocalist can only toil in the hope that a
convergence of her musical maturation and a shift public interest will one day take place.
And, while I can’t very well speak on the public’s behalf, I can say without a
doubt that Ms. Franz is doing her part.
Franz shows all the qualities of a budding diva: She has
stage presence to spare, notably an off-hand manner that suggests singing is a ho-hum
activity on the order of brushing her teeth. But she also has a predilection for the work
bluesy women rockers, as her selection of cover songs suggests: Sheryl Crow ("If it
Makes You Happy") Melissa Etheridge ("Come to My Window") and Bonnie Raitt
("Love Sneaking Up on You") were all checked. Franz's voice is silken, but with
an unmistakably ragged edge; the type of edge that gives Crow’s work its character.
She also has the chops to write pungent blues-rock – witness "Teach Me."
The beef against her, if you wish to look for one, is that
she perhaps hasn’t completely harnessed the power of her voice yet. Which is to say
it can be a little unwieldy. But Franz has got the tools. And, as her songwriting
continues to develop – along with her band, a competent, subdued quartet that knows
precisely when to rock out and when to get out of the way – who’s to say Franz
can’t play a part of restoring women rockers to their former pedestal?
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