Candace Bellamy – Undone
There will always be a doctor in the house on whatever venue which Candace Bellamy graces. That’s because the Knoxville native and Austin resident is herself a physician. Bellamy is clearly a person of many gifts, but eventually she decided that music was her true passion, and that she needed to pursue that passion.
Since, then Bellamy has cut a quartet of albums, including her latest – the EP Undone. Bellamy’s music has always incorporated the sounds and influences of eastern Tennessee, Memphis and Austin and those influences can be heard the vocals, arrangements, and the stories of the women we meet in this brief but richly descriptive five song EP.
Bellamy tries to dispense some cautionary advice to a girlfriend (or perhaps a younger sister or daughter) on the blues rock fused “Bad Idea,” a track propelled by church infused keyboards and pulsating bass and slashing guitars. “He’s easy to look at/Even I like him from behind/But up close and personal/He’ll rob you blind,” she proclaims.
The country ballad “Chase Me” tells a story of a couple that allows the life to sap the joy and sheen from their relationship, and pleads with her man to seek to recapture the good times by revisiting the simple joys of chasing each other. However, the song’s hook reveals that the two are pursuing something more. “Chase me, chase me/And tell me I’m the only one/The only one for you/Chase me, chase me/love me with your honesty/Trust me with your loyalty/All the things that money can’t buy”
The funky “Strut” turns the rocky road of life into an endless runway as Bellamy celebrates determined, relentless women who may fall but never stay down, as she encourages them to “put on your boots and strut/Cuz the runway’s not long enough for a woman like you.’
We featured the single “Trigger” on a first listen, and it’s easy to see why. When you think of the music of Austin, you hear the kind hard hitting funk, blues rock fusion that Bellamy wraps her sultry vocals around in this simmering tale of a woman being led down a path of sensual self-destruction. “The best lies, are the ones you tell yourself,” Bellamy declares.
Bellamy trained to be a doctor, but she seems to have much in common with a compounding pharmacists in the way she goes about making music. She’ll take a couple of milligrams of Memphis soul, combine it with a sprinkle of east Tennessee country, a dash of Texas rock and blues and wash it down with some gospel and it will be more than alright. It will be just what the doctor ordered. Strongly Recommended
By Howard Dukes
