Music Review: Katy Tessman, ‘Turnbuckles’
The Minnesota artist’s new EP tells stories of struggle and connection.
Katy Tessman’s Turnbuckles EP artwork. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Katy Tessman’s exhilarating third release, the 5-song EP Turnbuckles, is one steeped in mystery and reverberating distance, characterized by songs seeking handholds. Relying on the longtime singer/songwriter’s fierce independence and inner strength, this record ultimately leans against the solid bonds of human connection.
In the first track, “Seven Sisters,” Louis Stanoch’s electric guitar is restrained, reverberating softly as if from a distance. It’s a precise and thematic match to the plaintive nature of this mysterious and layered song, where Tessman relies on the guidance of the “Seven Sisters”:
lost in shadows
caught in disrepair
seeking a compass
but it’s already there
Even while singing lines like “whispers of struggles,” Katy Tessman’s voice has never been stronger as she explores the points of connection to the life and people around her. This album about searching will find you as you listen.
Turnbuckles was co-produced by Nikki Lemire and Michael Koppelman, who have collaborated with one another extensively and are both experienced working with Tessman. Their comfort and familiarity with one another shapes and enhances this record.
Koppelman brings a wealth of production and engineering experience with an extensive and storied resume in the Minnesota music scene. Nikki Lemire’s ability to conjure stunning production while relying on her certain and ingenious influence on the sonics of songs has made her one of the most sought-after recording partners in the Twin Cities area. This combination of Koppelman, Lemire, and Tessman is a winner as the album unfolds. They provide a light, even, and clear-minded restraint to the production that allows the listener to focus on the songs themselves, all the while fascinating the ear with innovative turns. In short, this trio has served the songs beautifully.
The track that shines the brightest in this gorgeous constellation of songs is “Ghost Ranch.” Both Koppelman and Lemire add vocals that, combined with Stanoch’s distant and stunning electric guitar work, transports the listener to an ethereal western edge, where there is more mystery than sure footing. It’s art mimicking the uncertainty of this modern life.
The track begins with a simple six-note vocal melody bolstered by three-part harmony. The melody notes are held for whole notes before moving. With each move, each part of the harmony changes position. By the time the sixth note ends, the melody resolves into an easy western lope guided by dreamy guitar parts that hover between the walkup music to a gunfight and the sweetest pedal steel from a seasoned country bar band.
Roughly two-thirds of the way through the song, Lemire throws her voice into the cosmos, and it lingers and gradually fades over Tessman’s line, “I’m a vessel destroyed / answering the call of the void.” Oliver Osland’s keyboards support the decay of the vocal line, and there is what legendary mix engineer Bob Clearmountain refers to as “a moment.” This moment could easily fascinate and hold the listener’s ear indefinitely. As Tessman sings “Take me to ghost ranch” over Koppelman’s lovely and precise harmonies, you want to pack your things and join her in this place of mystery, beauty, and discernment. It is a stunning, lovely, and alluring track that one returns to again and again.
Katy Tessman. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
It would have been easy for Tessman, Koppelman, and Lemire to loose the reins and allow Stanoch and Osland to run free; they’ve amply demonstrated their virtuosic and wonder-producing skill in their band Burning Blue Rain. Instead, the trio of producers chose to follow the highest calling in recording: to serve the songs. And it shows: The songs come through the speakers rich and beautiful, meaningful and elegant.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the track “Stay,” where Stanoch, just 22, demonstrates a blues sensibility with depth and nuance well beyond his years using a light and lithe acoustic guitar. Where his electric work can shake walls, it is a treat to hear his skill sans grit and the growl. Laid acoustic and bare, it is simply precise and awe-inspiring.
The EP takes a thematic turn with the track “Write My Own Story.” Where there is uncertainty and searching in the songs prior, this song feels clear-eyed with characteristic Katy Tessman determination:
I’m not going to live just a draft of myself
I don’t want to be someone else
and
turn the page
and
I’m going to write my own story
These lines are all lovely callbacks to Tessman’s own life as an author with a love of libraries.
The final track on the album, “Love Is Here,” sounds like redemption. Tessman leans on the power of song to heal and lead us forward. It has an anthemic feel, and one can easily envision Tessman closing her shows with the crowd singing “Oooh, love is here” right along with her. What a warm and sweet reminder of the power of music. What a way to send listeners back into an uncertain world.
Katy Tessman has stepped forward and up with her latest offering, Turnbuckles. In a boxing or wrestling ring, the turnbuckles that fasten ropes to corners hold the shape of the place where battles and struggles are fought. In some events, turnbuckles become points of pain. Tessman’s new offering traces the boundaries of struggle while connecting all four sides with hope. Somehow knowing the boundaries helps us to gather it all in one place, recount what has happened, and see the struggle for what it really is: a path to love and connection.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Doyle Turner. Photo credit: no_aesthetic_stills.
Doyle Turner loves words. Whether it is shaping syllables into songs, poems, early morning journals, handwritten thank yous, lists, or album reviews, he is in a deep and abiding relationship with his college-ruled paper, Uniball Signo 207 .7mm pens, and mostly his keyboard. A good day is spent taking pictures, mailing things, making the words convey the precise meaning, driving, and singing.
