With the self-release of Home Grown, her seventh album, Michelle Malone conjures up not just a new recording, but a "brand new dream." In a track by that name, Malone announces, "I'm not the kind I used to be—I'm making it easy." Writing, producing, releasing, and promoting an independent record may seem anything but easy, but Malone's recent emphasis on acoustic songwriting finds a home on a record of greater serenity—and less angst—than any other in her catalog.
Although Malone can be seen as part of the current rend favoring female acoustic songwriters (evidenced by the success of the Lilith Fair, at which she performed in 1997), her career has not been limited to either pure folk or pure pop. Malone, who began singing in the "cherub choir" at the age of four, modeled herself partly on her mother, a pop-turned-gospel singer. When she began performing her own songs in 1986, she drew on blues, jazz, and, increasingly, rock. Indeed, Redemption Dream (Daemon), released in 1994 with Band de Soleil (Malone's trio at the time) solidified her reputation for pyrotechnic electric guitar work and angst-ridden vocals.
Things have changed. "I've been picking and grinning for a couple of years now," says Malone, after a recent acoustic-driven set in Arlington, Virginia. Known in the past for her tormented stage persona, Malone moved with the giddy freedom of a marionette cut loose from its strings. She scrapped the flatpick for bare fingers on a few jazzy numbers and even added a slowed-down, ballad-style ending to one of her rockers from a previous album. Although she incorporated low-profile bass and backing vocals on some songs, the Atlanta-based artist now tours mostly as a solo performer. "It's helped me get back to my roots and my path," she says.
Like Malone's live show, Home Grown features acoustic guitar, with additions of pedal steel, violin, and subtle electric guitar gliding in and out of individual songs. Her guitar parts often employ alternate tunings. "Tonic," for example, uses a tuning Malone learned from Emmylou Harris: all the strings are tuned to D# except the second string, which is tuned to a C. The fifth string, tuned down six half steps, is a bit loose in this tuning, but she capos up two frets for this song, which helps.
Like a drawing made without lifting the pen, the album moves smoothly among diverse moods, from decaying hope in the title track to exultation in "Tonic." In this way, the album suggests that the ups and downs of life are linked as seamlessly as the notes of a scale connected by a quick glissando.
The relatively relaxed attitude toward life's challenges that some of Home Grown's songs suggest has its counterpart in Malone's musical philosophy. "It's a Zen thing," she explains. "It's like getting out of your own way. You stop trying to control everything." This apparent abdication of musical control is ironic, considering that Malone has perhaps more control over the way her music greets the world than she has ever had. Releasing Home Grown on her own label, SBS Records (PO Box 3092, Decatur, GA 30031; SBSRecords@aol.com, www.michellemalone.com), Malone has gone solo when it comes to business. Although she would welcome a like-minded manager to handle the time-consuming details of touring, she has found greater satisfaction in the homegrown approach to recording and touring than she did being signed to a major label.
"Give my regards to Broadway," sings a triumphant Malone in "Brand New Dream." "I'm hitting the highway."
