Album Review: Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside – Dirty Radio
Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside hail from Portland, Oregon, though listening to debut album ‘Dirty Radio’ you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d come from the land that time forgot. A lively mix of jazz, country, blues and rock n roll with a big punk attitude, Sallie Ford doesn’t sound like anyone else around and with ‘Dirty Radio’ she intends to make sure everyone knows it. The album opens with current single ‘I Swear’, an eloquent rant against soulless musicians who treat music as a commodity and to be fair you only have to turn on the radio to realise she has a point. Elsewhere the songs range from the sombre and poignant ‘Thirteen Years old’ to the bluesy ‘Poison Milk’ to the rockier sounding ‘Write me A Letter’ and every one is a winner. The band’s secret weapon is Sallie Ford’s exceptionally powerful and emotive vocals, many have compared her to Ella Fitzgerald and the comparison is not an exaggeration. A triumph of originality in a world where talent shows have reduced popular music to a wasteland of indistinguishable crap whether it will find a place on the mainstream radio stations she lambasts remains to be seen but ‘Dirt Radio’ has certainly won a regular slot on my stereo! 8/10
Mark Cousens
Out now on Fargo
