Beth Wimmer

On Tuesday evening, I went to a performance by singer-songwriter, Beth Wimmer at the Temple Bar in Santa Monica. I had heard her album "Live Within, Live Without" and was impressed with the production, vocal performance and songwriting in general. She mixes the melodic appeal of Sheryl Crow and the rolling energy of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" style with lyrics that move easily from relationship songs like "Move On" to the spriritual message of of "The Wheel." Beth's vocals onstage are as powerful as her performance on the album. Her stage presence is relaxed and friendly and she moves smoothly from one memorable song to the next. Her full one-hour set is consistently strong and entertaining. Although she usually performs solo, on this particular night she had an outstanding backup band whose credits read like a who's who of Alt Country. David Raven is one of the finest drummers on the scene today. His solid groove and tasty fills provide the kind of backing that singers pray for, Billy Watts on lead guitar and Taras Prodaniuk on bass were both superb. Raven most recently played on the soundtrack for "Brokeback Mountain" and co-produced Wimmer's CD. you can hear Beth's music at CDBaby.com. My pick: "Move On"!!! A great song with the potential to be a hit single in the Alt Country genre. - Robin Frederick

"The Wonderful MIRACLE GIRL" CD Review.

I've long been an admirer of Beth's smoky alto which is front and center on the wonderful "Miracle Girl". It's her songwriting though, that shines through. The tongue in cheek "Lover from Last Summer" and "Self Righteous Son of a Bitch" are my two favorites. I love it when a writer says things in a way that they've never been said before. - Peter Barker, Threshold Sound + Music, Los Angeles - Peter Barker, Threshold Sound + Music

“Beth Wimmer has a visually attractive product (Album: Live Within Live Without) that’s as warm and earthy as her music. Most striking is this performer’s hearty, folk-informed voice, complemented by violin and B3 organ. Wimmer sings effectively about self-realization (“Move On”) and even gets psychedelic on the album’s title track, “Live Within Live Without”… ~Music Connection - Music Connection Magazine

March 2010:

"Being confronted with a blurb that describes her as "the conscious person's Renaissance Singer/Songwriter. A strong & sensitive Artist tuned into living peacefully in today's uncertain world", immediately prompts me to expect some sort of New Age dippiness.

However, the CD having arrived with payola in the form of a Swiss bar of chocolate-enrobed Ovaltine biscuit, I’m predisposed to give it a chance.

Thankfully, the soft shuffling opening title track quickly dispels such fears, revealing the Boston born, Switzerland based Wimmer to be more in tune with the Americana of Lucinda Williams with a warm, relaxed, slightly twang-smeared huskiness that’s drawn comparisons to Chrissie Hynde.

It’s a winning introduction and she proceeds to cement our new relationship over the course of the following nine cuts, from the equally easy rolling Ten-Four through a ska-country bouncing Lover From Last Summer, a bluegrass streaked Dreams Bring Me Down and the fragile folk balladeering My Name Is Love to closing bar room guitar slinging Nashville rocker Self-Righteous Son Of A Bitch where she shows she has the sass to match the sweet.

Topped off with a dreamy, piano waltzing cover of Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart, it deserves to win her wider attention and build on the positive reviews for her Live Within Live Without 2003 debut. Released in Europe at the end of last year, two tracks found their way on to the end of year Top Ten of Glasgow based Radio Six International. I’d be surprised if at least one didn’t figure on the Radio 2 list in nine months time. Even without chocolate bars."

~Mike Davies, NetRhythms UK, March 2010 - Mike Davies, NetRhythms, UK

By Martin Smit of Next Big Thing, Germany:

"Floating, they say the tempo is floating, and it does, it sneaks in sleepy sensual, it shuffles in along side a languorous guitar solo, the seduction, the come on is the very thing, melting the present, fading out into a dreamlike future.

Then in ‘Ten Four’ taking a macho subject and subverting it like Aimee Mann likes to do, Beth steps up the edgy a little and glancing sideways, throws herself into new wave reggae and the daylight shows itself. This girl doesn’t need her Lover from Last Summer, it’s a put down in a pop song, the best way to be (slightly, honestly) nasty.

And then the ambiguous anti war song, she wants to know how it would feel, she wants to maybe taste the craziness, she says she is not at all strong, then she sings this epic, take her hand and she will pull you as close to the darker edges as she can.

After the intense internal of ‘O my Brother’ (another shy epic) a genuine pop country hit, the shuffle is faster, the words tumble harder. The giddy swing delights. this is ‘Dreams Bring Me Down.’

And in the Neil Young cover, she takes what was always fragile, and adds her own quiet sadness, her own female perspective of the danger and despair of love.
Finally, take the put down described earlier, times it by rock n roll boogie, add thumping drums and wooshing guitar, and you got this violent cool kick in the pants, F Ya, big sister to ‘Your So Vain ‘ just with way more oooomph."

~ Martin Smit, Next Big Thing, Germany, www.nbtMusic.de - Martin Smit, Next Big Thing, Germany

October 2009
***“Beth Wimmer is a lady with soul in her voice and love in her heart on the album ‘Miracle Girl’, reminiscent of Lucinda Williams or Chrissie Hynde. She demonstrates that she can deal with different music styles which will bring her on several stages in Europe and in home country America”

Beth Wimmer is een zangeres die haar roots heeft in het Amerikaanse New England maar nadien sinds meerdere jaren in Los Angeles woonde van waaruit ze gestaag aan haar muzikale carrière werkte. Ze is langzaamaan populair geworden in Europese landen als Zwitserland - waar ze momenteel ook woont - en in Italië en Duitsland waar ze steevast enkele dagen doorbrengt tijdens haar Europese tournees. Volgende keer zou ze zeker België en Nederland aan haar reisschema moeten toevoegen want deze muziek kent ook in onze contreien een trouwe aanhang.

Haar singer-songwritercapaciteiten etaleert ze uitgebreid in de tien tracks die werden weerhouden voor haar nieuwe album “Miracle Girl” dat ze samen met David Raven heeft geproduceerd. Als producer werkte Raven in het recente verleden ook al samen met o.a. Norah Jones en Nancy Sinatra.
De liedjes over hoop, humor, liefde en menselijke warmte vormen een coherent samenhangend geheel en werden op melodieuze muziek gezet waarbij de invloeden uit het country- en folkgenre duidelijk herkenbaar aanwezig zijn.

Qua stemgeluid doet Beth Wimmer soms denken aan Lucinda Williams en in de song “Ten-Four” roept ze bij ons zelfs even het beeld op van Chrissie Hynde van ‘The Pretenders’. Het uptempo countryrocknummer “Lover From Last Summer” gaat er bij ons in als zoete broodjes maar dat geldt evenzo voor de meer klassieke tearjerkers als “Miracle Girl”, “I Couldn’t Do It”, “O My Brother” of “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”, een song van Neil Young en de enige cover op deze mooie cd.

Dat Beth Wimmer ook over een behoorlijk grote portie soul beschikt valt dan weer te beluisteren in “Dreams Bring Me Down” en “Self-righteous Son Of A Bitch”, een onvervalste rock’n’roller die als afsluiter van dit album wordt geserveerd. Die swingende stijl was overigens nog veel sterker aanwezig op haar vorige plaat “Live Within Live Without” uit 2003.

Beth Wimmer blijkt dus een dame te zijn die van meerdere markten thuis is en daarmee kom je dezer dagen heel ver op de podia in het Europese muzikale landschap.

~ by Valere Sampermans, www.rootstime.be - Valere Sampermans, for Rootstime.be

www.MusikAnSich.de ~ "Actual Music" October 2009.

Die in New England, USA geborene Beth Wimmer lebt und produziert Ihre Musik inzwischen in der Schweiz.

Die junge Dame ist aber auch auf Ihrem vierten Album noch ganz Amerikanerin. Sie spielt nicht nur einen ziemlich erdigen Country / Americana, nein, Sie hat auch die richtige Stimme dafür.

Das heißt jedoch nicht, das sie einen auf Dauer eher nervigen Stil wie Miss Dolly Parton (Sorry, aber auch Denkmäler müssen mal zurecht gestutzt werden) oder aber langweiligen wir Miss Judie Collins (Sorry, aber auch Denkmäler müssen mal zurecht gestutzt werden – aber Collins hat das ja mit Ihrem Beatles Tribute vor ca. zwei Jahren selber getan) pflegt, nein, der Country Folk / Country Rock von Beth Wimmer klingt zumeist sehr erdig und sehr angenehm.

Besonders die Balladen, von denen es mit „Powerfull Love“ und „Only Love can break your heart“ und anderen, einige gibt, sind sehnsüchtig, mit einfachen, aber feinen Melodien versehen und die Gitarren perlen dahin.

Und das wichtigste ist, wie angesprochen, die für eben diese Balladen aber ebenso wie für einen richtigen Rocker (ausgerechnet das letzte Stück eines eher ruhigen Albums) wie „Self righteous son of a bitch“ hervorragend geeignet.

Also: endlich mal wieder ein ordentliches Album aus der Country / Americana Ecke, die sonst für viele Peinlichkeiten sorgt.

~Wolfgang Kabsch, Musik an Sich - Wolfgang Kabsch for Musik an Sich, Germany

September 2009:

Zoals menig singersongwriter verliet Beth Wimmer haar thuishave.

Amper achttien verruilde ze haar thuishaven in New England voor het zonnige Californië waar haar muzikale ambities concrete vorm kregen. Ondertussen leeft ze in Europa en musiceert ze in Italië en Zwitserland.

Haar recentste werkstuk ’Miracle Girl’ kwam echter tot stand met muzikanten uit haar geboorteland. Producer David Raven (Jim Lauderdale en Norah Jones) zorgde voor percussie geruggesteund door Taras Prodaniuk, die eerder de basstructuren neerzette bij Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam en Michelle Shocked. Bill Watts (Bonnie Raitt, Dixie Chicks) bedient de elektrische gitaar en lapsteel, en Daniel Nahmod de piano. Deze door de wol geverfde muzikanten stellen zich bescheiden en functioneel ten dienste van Wimmer.

Het oeuvre situeert zich voornamelijk in een breed georiënteerde countryfolk-hoek en de zangeres put inspiratie uit omzwervingen en toevallige ontmoetingen. Deze impressies worden met gracieuze stembuigingen vertolkt. Het huppelritme van ‘Lover for last summer’ spreekt me niet meteen aan.

De ietwat treurige teneur van de titelsong ‘Oh Brother’ en een countryslijper als ’ couldn’t do it’ des te meer. Ook akoestische nummers zoals ‘My name is Love’ en ‘Powerful Love’ gaan deze ‘miracle girl’ bijzonder goed af. Haar versie van Neil Young’s ‘Only love can break your heart’ werd al door talloze zangeressen (o.a. Elkie Brooks) gecoverd en ze bijt haar fraaie tanden niet stuk op deze klassieker. Even uit de bol gaan mag, zeker met zo’n puike begeleiders, Wimmer spaarde dit op voor de rockende afsluiter ‘Selfrighteous son of a bitch’, klare taal van een zelfzekere lady.

Hopelijk vindt Beth Wimmer in de Zwitserse Alpen inspiratie voor een even sterke opvolger.

-??Cis Van Looy ???½ - Cis Van Looy - Keys and Chords, Belgium

If Chris Isaac and Annie Lennox moved down to the southern part of the states and got themselves a babygirl and this girl did an album when she was somewhere in her 30's it would probably sound like this. Beth Wimmer perches on a very nice voice and the production is really pleasant. A very solid and good mature singer-songwriter album with smart pop refrains.
by Paer Winberg of Melodic.net, November 2009 - Paer Winberg of Melodic.net, Belgium

As the new country of Nashville is more and more starting to resemble pop-rock, why not adopt this album's kind of clarity in music instead of the usual, trendy FM-radio? Meaning a production in which you can distinctly hear the different instruments rather than the mishmash, the muddle provided by 'big production FM'. This fourth album by Beth is the proof of what's happening to new country right now, but believe me, it's also the proof of a positive course of events! The production and the accompaniment are perfectly enhancing a voice both very assured and very pleasant. The production is made by David Raven. The same Raven can also be found on the drums, the instruments with which he has accompanied a great part of the music world, from Keith Richards to Norah Jones, as well as Jim Lauderdale and Steve Earle. The bass player Taras Prodaniuk has an equally beautiful resumé (12 years side by side with Dwight Yoakam, and more currently Lucinda Williams). However, the true jewel is the guitar provided by Billy Watts, currently backing Eric Burdon: every note is pertinent and the resonance is brilliant. These three musicians have recently joined together in the group Mojo Monkeys. There's a great variation in the mood of the songs, all written by Beth except from "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", borrowed from Neil Young. This album will be of enjoyment to all of our readers! 
- JJC / Le Cri Du Coyote - - Le Cri Du Coyote, FRANCE. -by JJC, November 2009