Carolyn Sampson Wadsworth

In 2021, Texas blueswoman Carolyn Wonderland released Tempting Fate, her Alligator debut. She'd been in the game for two decades. Dave Alvin produced, played, and sang on it, alongside a cast of Texas luminaries. It was greeted with excited reviews from the rock and blues press, enhancing her touring reputation. Alvin is a big presence on Truth Is, her sophomore outing for the label. He produces, plays, and co-wrote four songs with Wonderland. Her trio – Naj Conklin on basses and Giovanni "Nooch" Carnuccio on drums and percussion – host a studio cast that includes vocalists Shelley King, Marcia Ball, and Ruthie Foster, organist Red Young, pianist/organist Bukka Allen, lap steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar, and others.

Carolyn Malachi is an artist’s artist. Her work is the kind that deeply studied technicians instantly recognize and appreciate as one of their own. And, while her work has largely straddled the fence between the avant-garde and the commercially accessible, with Rise: Story 1, she almost completely hops over to the side of experimentation and technician play. The results are a mix of flawlessly sung, rapped, and played material that feel disjointed in their arrangements and non-linear storytelling, creating an album more impressionistic than accessibly concrete, depending on how much creative play one can tolerate or embrace from their music.