Album Review: Julie Rhodes 'Bound To Meet The Devil'

Powerhouse. It’s the one word that will immediately come to mind (while your mouth drops to the floor and you stop in your tracks) when you listen to Julie Rhodes’ debut album Bound To Meet The Devil.

Not even two years ago, Rhodes was working in an ice cream parlor when she attended artist Jonah Tolchin’s show and by happy accident, Tolchin heard her singing along to one of his songs. Later they talked, and well, the rest is history. Soon after, Tochin was co-producing and playing guitar on Rhodes debut album, which will be released on February 26th. Recorded in her native New England as well as at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals and mixed by Grammy winner Sheldon Gomberg, the LP also includes contributions from Roll Hall of Fame inductee Spooner Oldham, Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins, and Greg Leisz (Paul Westerberg, Lucinda Williams).

The eleven track collection includes all originals - sans a rendition of the Son House standard “Grinnin’ In Your Face” - that will win you over not just with their melody and lyricism, but with the intensity of Rhodes’ vocals as well. Her powerful, assured voice – fiery, impassioned, somber, fierce- will obviously draw justified comparisons to the greats like Joplin, James and Franklin or even male contemporaries like Nathaniel Rateliff, but Rhodes remains uniquely her own.  She possesses a voice, that no matter whether she’s singing soul, blues, funk or gospel, tells one thing: truth.

The collection kicks off with the stomping bluesy tale of rejection, “In Your Garden” and continues with the soul-funk of “Collector Man” (a relatable and real song about the working man) and the gospel hymn sound of “Faith” which sends the all-important inspirational message that you have to believe things will work out to be happy. Rhodes slips in some retro soul on “Holes,” reggae on “Hey Stranger” and funky soul on “Hurricane” where she growls, trumpets blaring “I don’t mind a little heartache sometime…thunder call me, lightning strike me down.” The beautiful ballad “See The Sun” (with its Righteous Brothers aura) encourages one to remember they’re not alone in this world, while the pedal steel in “End of The Line” lends a solemn feeling to that all too familiar theme of the dissolution of a relationship. The album is rounded out by with the weariness of “Skyscraper Blues” (amplified by a bluegrass arrangement) and album closer, the heated “Key Won’t Unlock My Door” a duet about locking that one person out of your life for good.

Bound To Meet The Devil is music’s gain with Rhodes delivering a debut that’s a passionate, assured gem.

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