ROOTS

Latest releases reviewed

PATRICIA VONNE
Guitars & Castanets Measured Records
****

How come there aren't more Mexican-American rock stars? Perhaps they're having too much fun with their indigenous music to bother. Patricia Vonne is different. On her second album she strikes out as somebody who has the talent and the attitude to make it happen - but on her own terms. This is a Texas border album, a mixture of beguiling Latin themes and tunes (La Gitana de Triana) and guitar-whipped rockers, such as her worthy tribute to Joe Ely, Joe's Gone Ridin'. Vonne, who hails from San Antonio, has the necessary sense of the dramatic and has armed herself with a cracking band to help make the right moves. It's a pulsating and ultimately winning sound full of menace, edge and romance. www.patriciavonne.com  Joe Breen

KING BRITT
King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan Ropeadope Records
**

Sister Gertrude Morgan was an evangelist who used her paintings and songs to call attention to her God on the streets of New Orleans in the early part of the last century. She left behind a number of raw recordings of her tambourine and tonsils in full flight, and Ropeadope invited leading American DJ and sound master King Britt to lay down suitable backing tracks for her primitive exhortations. It's something Tangle Eye did brilliantly last year on a remix of Alan Lomax field recordings, but King Britt never cracks the good sister's code. His percussion-heavy mixes and her solitary voice do each a disservice - there is no real connection. A missed opportunity. www.kingbritt.com

Joe Breen