Title: Carnival of Miracles
Artist: Paula Boggs Band
Label: Boggs Media, LLC
Formats: CD, MP3
Release date: March 17, 2015
Carnival of Miracles (2015) is the latest album from Seattle’s Paula Boggs Band. At its core, the album serves as an emotional outlet for Boggs as she confronts the loss of loved ones and as she experiences the transition from a professional career to a full-time musician—Boggs quit her job as an attorney and as an executive for Starbucks to follow her passion. Carnival of Miracles is introspective and somber in its reflection of the pain. Yet, underlying the pain is an uplifting message of hope and perseverance. At the forefront of these complex emotions are Boggs’s intelligent and poetic lyrics. By featuring the claw-hammer banjo, lap-steel guitar, accordion, and haunting melodies, the album is rooted in an eclectic Americana sound.
Carnival of Miracles opens with “Grateful,” a country-styled song intended as an ode to Boggs’s lover. As the song progresses, the delicate melodies of the banjo and accordion tenderly wrap around each other creating a musical metaphor for the song’s characters. As the words “You have saved me” are repeated in the chorus, it becomes clear that Boggs is not only singing about the joys of love but the pain that love allowed her to leave behind.
The album’s title track is also gentle and introspective. Here, Boggs sings of her own struggles to find happiness in the wake of personal tragedy. Her voice, deep and dark, conveys both the anguish she currently feels and the solace she hopes to find. She sings, “We dance to mask our mourning and lift our souls” before adding the encouraging proclamation that “together we make the most of this great land.” Again, the accordion and the banjo are highlights of the song.
For track five, “Look Straight Ahead,” driving solos on the electric guitar replace the soft melodies of the claw-hammer banjo and accordion found in previous tracks. The change in instrumentation makes this the grittiest, most rock-oriented song on the album. “Look Straight Ahead” is also the most empowering of the album, as Boggs casts off the role of victim and takes up the mantle of the fearless fighter.
“Lenny’s in the House,” the seventh track, is a fun-filled and quick-tempo country song honoring the great songwriter and musician Leonard Cohen. While the song stands in stark-contrast to the somber tone of the album’s earlier tracks, it is no less introspective and personal. Boggs is clearly inspired by Cohen and her debt to him is one she does not take lightly. Although “Lenny’s in the House” fills Boggs’s audience with the desire to dance, it also encourages reflection on and celebration of similarly inspirational people in our own lives.
Carnival of Miracles closes with a cover of Neil Young’s “When You Dance I Can Really Love” from his 1970 album After the Goldrush. Again, it is the banjo, accordion, and lap-steel guitar that are at center of the song. Although Boggs and her band perform this classic rock song as a modern country song, the transition of style feels appropriate. A highlight of the song is the use of a large “choir” at the end of the song. This “choir,” which is formed by layering Boggs’s voice on top of itself, not only increases the emotional impact of the song but shows off Boggs’s talent as a vocalist.
Carnival of Miracles is produced by Grammy award winner Trina Shoemaker and is the follow-up to Paula Boggs Band’s 2010 debut album, A Buddha State of Mind. The Paula Boggs Band is currently on tour across America.
Listen on Spotify here.
Reviewed by Tyler Fritts