Ally Venable
No Glass Shoes
Reviewed by: Tiffany Taylor
Blues singer and guitarist Ally Venable debuts her first album No Glass Shoes with Connor Ray Music. Venable is only 17 and is already making remarkable progress with her career. What I can say about Ally Venable is there is a lot of soul behind her country-blues sound. Disclaimer: I am not the biggest country music fan, but I am going to do my best to be objective.
Guitar melodies come in full throttle from the start of the first track “Trainwreck Blues.” Her work on guitar is remarkable from the beginning. For an opener on an album, Venable is off to a fair start. The title track, “No Glass Shoes,” opens with a bluesy introduction that follows with Venable’s voice which comes through so clean, it is almost too well done. There is a lot of angst and raw emotion that comes through on this song; for being so young she has a lot to fuel her passion.
Something that would really work well for her is she was more cohesive with her style. There are jumps from blues to rock to country/bluegrass roots. With her impeccable abilities on the guitar, a heavy blues/rock sound would altogether make the band sound more solid as a whole. I was slightly disappointed with the way her voice came in on the song “Woke Up This Mornin’.” Something seemed too forced and boastful for how the track was playing out- it was like a puzzle piece that just didn’t fit.
As I make way to the middle of the album, “Messin With The Kid” finally delivered in sound and vocals. The contrast of low voice to the drawn out guitar was a near flawless balance that the album needed to keep it afloat. Overall I believe Ally Venable has an enormous amount of talent. As she continues to make music, she’ll continue to find a niche that best suits her. No Glass Shoes was the first page of a long journey and if she keeps it up with her burning passion, she’ll have quite the successful career.
Rating: Listenable
