Karen Pernick
Two Kinds of Weather

(Independent)

First Appeared in The Music Box, April 2007, Volume 14, #4

Written by John Metzger

Allowing 10 years to pass between recordings isn’t a career strategy that comes highly recommended. Then again, a similarly sluggish game plan worked out quite well for Lucinda Williams. While Karen Pernick’s sophomore effort Two Kinds of Weather isn’t likely to be the sort of breakthrough that is on par with Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, it does showcase her growth and maturity as an artist. Musically poised at the crossroads where Jesse Sykes, Cowboy Junkies, Neko Case, and Shawn Colvin collide, the endeavor suitably captures the moody ambience of the Pacific Northwest’s gray-tinted skies under which it was concocted. Stumbling from one scene to the next, Pernick quietly reflects upon the relationships in her life, and although she dreams of escaping to something better, she also struggles with saying goodbye. A sense of both heartache and yearning drips from opening cut Angie’s Tavern; an unspoken danger lurks within the darkened corners of tracks like Brightest Blaze and Seven Limbs; and an air of sad optimism permeates the cleansing waters that pour down upon her in One Way Ticket and Rain. Even a cover of the Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses is slowed down to the point where its sorrow becomes inescapable. Although there are moments when Pernick’s output is too sleepily lethargic for its own good, the quiet, haunted refrains that she concocted for Two Kinds of Weather are, more often than not, touchingly beautiful.

Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2007 The Music Box