It feels like a lifetime ago that I talked to Catriona about her solo project under the guise of Tulsaqueen (interview here). Having been a well known face around the Glasgow music scene for several years now, with Curdle and Dorothy Hale, her hotly anticipated superb country styled (with a twist) solo album is finally being unveiled with a launch gig in The Old Hairdressers on Friday (17th June)
The album (on Double A Side Records) will be available to stream from all your favourite platforms on the same day, but, being the impatient sod that I am, I pestered Angus and Catriona for a sneak preview. Well, I’ve been waiting patiently up to now…
Naming her band after a classic Emmylou Harris song and naming Gram Parsons as a musical hero/influence gives an indication of the direction Catriona has taken with the music of Tulsaqueen. This album has given her an outlet to display both her love for country music, alongside her love of gore, blood and guts, which is already demonstrated admirably in much of the song-writing of Curdle.
In a week where many have mourned the passing of the wonderfully unique Julee Cruise, I can also hear a side of Tulsaqueen’s music that would be a fitting addition to the soundtrack of any David Lynch movie or TV show. There is a certain delicacy and intrigue to the music, but with lyrics often taking a sinister turn, don’t be fooled into thinking this guitar slinger is going to be any sort of shrinking violet.
If you have followed the progression of Tulsaqueen’s music as I have from the release of her debut single, Bloodstain, in March 2020, some of the songs will be familiar to you, with the aforementioned debut single opening this sublime collection of prime cuts, it’s a sorrowful lament which rues all the bitter and sad sides of relationships, ”Love is a bloodstain” sings Catriona over her gently strummed guitar. A song which emits a fragile beauty with lyrics which tell a different tale. A perfect example of a country song!
The guitar parts in Bruise take on a glorious vibrato twang, with lyrics that belie what you might assume the sing is about from its title. A red letter day in more than one way ”I write the day in blood that I met you” revealing the song is one of good, if drunken, memories.
Trouble Every Day is based on the Clare Denis film of the same name, if you don’t know it, then seek it out. Without giving too much away, expect hopeless, desperate love and gore, themes that are omnipresent in Tulsaqueen’s songwriting. Once again though, Catriona’s deeply affecting and emotional vocal give an edge of mystery and beauty.
That enigmatically alluring charm and elegance is particularly prevalent on the nigh on tear inducing So Long, a tribute to one of her musical heroes Gram Parsons. There is so much emotion in the vocal delivery and playing it does strange things to my heart rhythms…
And just when you think its safe to go back into the water…well, Never Again comes along and does something to the old emotions again, what a rollercoaster. Definitely a misty eyed one. Nothing dark in terms of gore or blood here, just the vagaries of life. Fucking heartbreaking. just what I love about a song, it makes you FEEL.
I needed pumped up after that, so along comes Headless with its awesome ebow overload and a hypnotic dreamlike rhythm to invoke the perfect woozy feeling to go with the lyrics ”Dreams with no guilt, shame, or doubt”. Pure escapism. Gorgeous.
A wee banjo led treat comes in the form of God Has Given Me Blood to Drink, inspired by a variety of authors… Shirley Jackson, Angela Carter and Pleasant Gehman. Angela sees Angela Carter get her own unique tribute, ”and if you asked, I bring you roses, and the bones of whoever you want, and wash your feet in blood, I think you’d like that”, sung in Tulsaqueen’s own inimitable style making the bizarre tributes sound beautiful and perfectly normal.
With its church organ sound, Burial, is one which begins feeling like a message of love from the recently deceased, but with lyrics that seem to take a sinister twist as the song reaches its conclusion… “so sick of counting bruise after bruise”, before the haunting repeated coda ”so many ways I dreamt of taking you apart”.
The album’s penultimate song No Drunks, with its atmospheric organ and a haunting hummed melody allows this spacious, uncluttered and unhurried song to drag you without a struggle into its elegantly soporific depths, without a care or worry in the world.
Paradoxically, I Can’t Sleep is one of the most rousing songs on the album, pounding drum beats announcing the arrival of this epic, adding soaring guitar and keyboards, the pounding drums omnipresent and creating a deep resonance that is matched by Catriona’s richly sonorous vocal. Of course this wouldn’t be a Tulsaqueen song without its bleak lyrics, and a wee kicker at the end…
Half an hour spent in Tulsaqueen’s world is a captivatingly bewitching experience, both comforting and disturbing at the same time, but like the glamouring of a vampire, the music of Tulsaqueen will quickly have you spellbound and consumed by its beguiling beauty.
If you’re out and about in Glasgow on Friday, head along to The Old Hairdressers to have your soul consumed by these enchanting sirenic songs.