SUSAN WEBER

Susan Weber delivers her art with palpable emotion. Whether live on stage or in recorded form, with a full band or solo, Weber's true grit, bluesy swagger and first-person lyrical insight offers vivid, in the moment narratives and true, present tense clarity. Sounds like a mouthful? Sure is. Grafting vines as disparate as Gordon Downie, Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde, her candor is what brings Monet's Orbit (also the name of her backing band) front-and-center for the listener.
We've said before that she is a huge local talent and we're not kidding; you know you're in for a treat when she goes straight for the jugular with the leadoff track "Buffalo" -- a finger wag at everything from The Culture of Fear and cult of personality in politics, to the military industrial complex and class warfare in society. It's an awful lot to cram into one song, but given Weber's successfully world-weary delivery, it says a great deal about her. And that's saying nothing of her very capable band and their unique ability to follow her every move.
Any songwriter who can find a way to invoke Agamemnon, Aphrodite, the Pharoahs, Columbine and can roll out a line like She is the child of Gaza stripping Walter Cronkite's paradigm is bound to draw in the listener. And with that voice that tonally suggests Smith in a post-punk flight of empowered reflection? Wow. Powerful Stuff. I don't get the progressive rock sensibility that some critics in town have shouldered her with; but that kick-in-the-breadbasket, tough Midwestern girl with a chip on her shoulder thing? Yes, definitely.
Monet's Orbit is a solid, 11-track effort that sinks and shudders and soars with harrowing spiritual nakedness. Highlights from this set include ""Take Me High," "Painted Moon" and a very direct "Carnival." But the set closer "She is Here" cinches it for this reviewer. Weber rides the rails of feminism with her protagonist's naked power bleeding, heading to a could-be-good, could-be-bad end. She can drown on ritalin/ She can drive a nine inch nail/ She can dream on borrowed time/ She will find her holy grail. Note to Trent Reznor: steer clear of the female subject in this song. The one in "She is Here" is likely to drive you to rhyme "hole" and "soul" yet again. -- Peter Chakerian, Cool Cleveland
Cool Cleveland named MONET'S ORBIT a TOP TEN LOCAL ALBUM 2007.