Roma Di Luna

Saturday 11 December. Roma Di Luna played Beat Kitchen promoting the new CD "Then The Morning Came". But the CD that came to my attention first was their first one, "Find Your Way Home". I've been aware of them for less than two months but I feel like I've been inclined, prepared to like this far far end of country. This kind of music always evokes wilderness close by, the ominous mystery of it. The rural frontier of Roma Di Luna is bleak and sorrowful. Each little song stares into the face some ......fucked shit. A long time ago I saw Ethan Hawke in a Steppenwolf play in Chicago. He was in Buried Child, a Sam Shepard play. I think Channy and Alexei must have been there to. "No Child Of My Own" is like the soundtrack. The names of some of the songs stick out, and you can't miss Leonard Pelteir, and his quote. "Ghost Dance", I wondered if this one is a Wounded Knee reference. I mean there's a Leonard Peltier quote inside the sleeve. There's just too many things I can string together. The original Ghost Dance was this last gasp of defiance for the Indians that performed it. It was a ritual dance that all tribes did. And so they end this song with that same dead cold middle finger. And it's just Channy and a guitar, and no where to escape. You just have her fearless, delicate-sounding voice to walk you through whatever she stares at.

So, they had me with "Devil Walks" from the CD "Find Your Way Home". Channy sings "well the devil walks and the devil is real to me", and I get a chill. You combine that with that wilderness feel and suddenly driving through the Willow Springs forest preserve is scary again. "Devil Walks" has all kind of quirks that are noteworthy to me. Try to follow the song while reading the lyrics . Turns out Channy slurs a lot of her own words. Just go with it. A lot of things to chew on in this song once you read it. It turns out far darker than that first imprint can suggest. It's like the nightmares Nick Cave gets in a mid afternoon nap. Yes, it's bleak! It's dark. But it puts all of that in a very specific "...north country". I briefly wondered if that was a real reference, an actual place. It's quite unsafe what Channy describes. Whatever ray of hope the song does have is snuffed out before it concludes. In the world that first song describes, the devil hunts freely for fun. Children aren't safe, parents suffer the loss, and the pain begins bright and early. You do not want to be from here. I keep saying rural this, rural that. "Devil Walks can be about anywhere urban as well. Urban decay is a kind of frontier too. Right near the wilderness.

So why do I go after this kind of music? Why seek out every chance I can get to say "Bleak!" and "Dark", and "Nick Cave coolness"? I suppose it's like Virgil guiding Dante through hell. It's a little cathartic to be walked through all that. You feel like you've strolled where angels fear to tread. And while we are at it why do y'all go see SAW VI?

It's easy to identify with the dominant sentiments each song describes. "Plenty" hits with that same authority of Dolly Parton's iconic "Jolene". It explores the same overpowering doubt in one's significant other. Is she pretty enough and so forth.

So Channy has this voice that I will attempt to describe in the poor sad way that I know. It's smokey and child-like. The Cranes! Just like The Cranes they are cool in part because of Alison Shaw's quirky voice. It's too weird and child-like to call girly. The Cranes are solidly urban. Roma Di Luna are rural, lets just say. Both are weird and mysterious and that is evoked primarily with their female vocalists. Having gone on about Channy I like Alexei as well. I just don't really go on about the male voice even when I like it. It's the girls that get me writing.

Even as I go on about the CD "Find Your Way Home". It's not what they toured with this time that I saw them. "Then The Morning Came" is what they toured with and performed from and it's also awesome. They relaxed their cold black grip to show a cool, sweet side.