If Patsy Cline had been born a few decades later, visited a tattoo parlor or two and had grown up listening to rock, she may have changed her name to Wensday and invented a new type of genre called Torch Rock- the new style and debut cd from chanteuse Wensday who now hails from Phoenix vis a vis Providence, Rhode Island.
Wensday’s diverse and eclectic background reads like a how to list for becoming a great force in music—she studied theatre at Oxford University, graduated from NYU, and is quite the adept body piercer when she hasn’t been directing Children’s Theatre. As most “this is how it happened” stories , Wensday was in the right place at the right time when music industry experts Suzy Michelson and Alex Cyrell of record label Desert Dreams, happened upon one of her shows in Providence and offered her the glittering prize of recording a demo with Dick Wagner. (Yes- THAT songwriter and producer- Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Aerosmith, KISS, Meatloaf… to name a few…).. The Demo turned into a full on collaboration and the result is a 13 track debut that will have you wishing Wensday had entered the scene a day or two earlier.
“Torch Rock” is a remarkable assortment of rock ballads and soulful melodies with a nod to Torch Queens of the past..Patsy, Billie and even Alice… Cooper that is. Her cover of “Only Women Bleed” is one of those perfect renditions where the artist nods in appreciation to the original but breathes new life with a new spin and execution. Other notables are “Arizona Man”, “Bulldog Blues” and “Skye”.
All in all “Torch Rock” is a bonfire of beauty.
5 stars
