Julia Josephine Slone

Next up is Julia Josephine Slone with a larger group, featuring two guitars, keys, tenor sax, drums, and lead and accompanying vocals. They have massive volume to their sound, with Dan Liptak’s sax adding warmth, and Jane Boxall’s drums consistently ruthless. Wonderfully executed dynamics and Mary Friesen’s well-placed backup vocals command attention, and receive it. Julia has a kind of gritty sweet voice that is both pleasant and strong. She sings with emotion and believability. I am impressed by guitarist Aidan O’Brien’s skills and, when told that tonight is the first time the whole group has played together, am blown away. Complete with sax, drum, and guitar solos, the performance is splendid - BurlingtonMusic

Trading in an intriguing blend of soul, funk and American roots balanced by a delicate pop sensibility, southern-Vermont-based songwriter Julia Josephine Slone is staking her claim to be among the state’s top young female stars. Her latest album, The Baby and the Bathwater, was released to local critical praise earlier this year, suggesting Slone is one to watch in 2011. - Seven Days Vermont

Julia Josephine Slone’s CD “The Baby and the Bath Water” hits you the way a really fun old friend saunters into the room at a party — in high spirits and with a big grin on her face.

With an irrepressibly rich, shiny sound and abundant spirit, warmth and wisdom, “The Baby and the Bath Water” is a confident and ear-catching effort from a singer-songwriter who should be proud of herself for having the vision to aim for something unique and the talent to pull it off. “The Baby and the Bath Water” doesn’t sound like anyone else’s CD. This is hers, and the smiling confidence it projects is one of its most charming features.

That’s not to say that “Baby in the Bath Water” projects attitude over substance. With the help of eight talented friends and a remarkable array of instruments — trombone, clarintet, tuba, violin, trumpet, viola, plus the standard guitar, drums and bass — Slone paints with a colorful palette of sounds, folding doo-wop, Motown, reggae, soul, indie-rock and a persistent wash of lush harmony vocals into seven original songs and three cover tunes.

Though not strictly a biographical CD, “The Baby and the Bath Water” does tell the story of a young woman struggling to work out all the balances in life — between wide-ranging ambition and the joys of simple domestic bliss; between chasing dreams and being true to the muse; between charting your own course and sharing your life with someone. Slone does not shy away from dealing with disappointment, heartbreak, break-ups and broken dreams, but she doesn’t dwell on them either. There is a prevailing sense of joy, a smiling spirit of resilience, that helps “The Baby and the Bath Water” stay sunny. For more information, visit Julia music.com.

Slone, who calls an off-the-grid farmhouse in southeastern Vermont home, has been touring in support of the CD since summer. You can catch her on Thursday, Dec. 2, at 6:30 p.m., at Flat Street Brew Pub in Brattleboro. For that show, she will perform as part of a quintet that includes Jon Weeks (sax), Aidan O’Brien (guitar), Will Thomas Rowan (piano, vocals, banjo) and Lynn Mahoney Rowan (vocals).
- Brattleboro Reformer