Lisa Alice: Plans In Pencil

Artist: Lisa Alice
Title: Plans In Pencil
Format: CD-EP
Genre: Folk Rock
Label: Ridiculum Records

A woman and her guitar is all that is needed on Plans In Pencil. I have to wonder exactly what the title of this recording means. This CD could be a prelude to a full-length album that Lisa Alice is planning to release or something much more personal. Whatever the true meaning of the title is, it really does not matter once you start listening to Alice sing and strum her guitar.

The stripped down and from-the-gut compositions made for her six-string will suck you in like one of those vacuum cleaners you see on a commercial that picks up metal balls. This may be an odd analogy for such a sweet voice and mellow music but if the shoe fits…

"New" is a wonderful stage for Alice’s two-pronged attack upon your senses, her voice and guitar playing is outstanding and it finishes the album very strongly, clocking in over 6 minutes. Although this is an appetizer to a full course meal of the Alice repertoire, it certainly is a good sketch of her alternative folk rock sound. If this is just in pencil, I look forward to the ultimate product. Alice has a lot of potential and obviously is a good study of some the greats in the realm of melodic folk such as Dylan, CSNY and the like. She is from San Francisco and sounds as if she would be very comfortable sitting on a stool performing on a street corner in Haight-Ashbury. It would seem like a natural extension of her music.

This very good EP leaves you hanging on the edge waiting for more. Now I wait.

© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

January 25, 2005

Rating-8/10

1. Tuesday Sirens (3:38)

2. Not Blue (4:00)

3. The Note (5:05)

4. Parisanfrancisco (3:24)

5. New (6:23)