Paula O'Rourke

IN THE TIME -honored tradition of offshoot bands leaning more to one side than their primary musical source of bread and butter does, San Francisco's Tiny play way more countrified music than Liar, singer-bassist Paula O'Rourke's Americana group. Tiny (rounded out by Paulo Baldi on drums and Michael Montalto on bass) play minor-chord, boxcar-hoppin' cowgirl music, and the two Liars have been singing together so long that when they bust out harmonies (and they frequently do), it's hard to tell which is which. "Shame" starts off at a jaunty pace with rolling drums and fiddle-vox counterpoint; "Harbinger" slows it down and showcases the cowgirls' vocal dexterity with a nice unison-to-octave stunt. And the way-past-I-will-survive vocals on "Loneliness" merit a quote: "Waitin' for the phone to ring, you might as well unplug that thing / Cuz callin' you's not even on my list / Thought you heard me at your door, don't know your address anymore / You must have heard the sound of your own fist." Yee-haw.
- Summer Dale

The name may be Tiny but they have made a big impact on me. Paula O'Rourke's tight little band is far too good to be written off merely as quirky but they do inhabit a neighbourhood that even their fellow residents in “left-field” think of as exotic. What kept me listening at first was partly curiosity - why did this sound so distinctive and attractive? - but soon I was simply basking in the overall experience. The ingredients are a thundering bass (O'Rourke herself), thrilling guitars (Dan Olmsted), a spine-tingling violin (Sheila Shat), heavenly harmony vocals (O'Rourke & Shat) and drumming that switches effortlessly between jazz, pop and country (Patrick Harte). Most importantly, however, there are the superb songs, and it's these even more than the evident ability and glee in their playing that marks out Tiny. Almost all were written by Paula and the band and they put to rhythm wit, warmth and a surgically precise probing of our vanities, not least on the title track. While some tracks brought to mind the Throwing Muses, this was more akin to Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, conjuring via Shat's violin a delicious air of Kurt Weill. Equally outstanding is Heaven, an immensely good-humoured song imbued with boundless joie-de-vivre. Harte sets up a beat that proves as irresistible as the killer melodic hook and the beaming lyrics: “Cause everyday's my birthday and my name is ice cream” A logical move from heaven is to Paula's Guardian Angel, but although the simple, insistent tune and inventive instrumentation - Wally McClellan's marvellous mouth-harp for instance - make it great for us, she admits it can't always have been so easy on her protector. “Through the years I've really bent your ears/ Your shoulder must be tired from my leanin'” Loneliness hurtles along like a bluegrass Cossack dance and the instrumental B-Minor Valentiner combines a gorgeous violin melody - the radiant young girl in her best new dress - with a skilfully played underlying tension that reflects everyone's insecurity on that most charged of days. An album that begins with the alternately creeping and storming Withering ends with the drunkenly eerie Infinity and an unnamed klezmer-style instrumental that also flips repeatedly between gentle dance and frenzy. It's a fitting close for an album with so much energy and bounce. (Maybe that's why"Tigger" appears on the thank-yous!) (DM)

The name may be Tiny but they have made a big impact on me. Paula O'Rourke's tight little band is far too good to be written off merely as quirky but they do inhabit a neighbourhood that even their fellow residents in "left-field" think of as exotic. What kept me listening at first was partly curiosity - why did this sound so distinctive and attractive? - but soon I was simply basking in the overall experience. The ingredients are a thundering bass (O'Rourke herself), thrilling guitars (Dan Olmsted), a spine-tingling violin (Sheila Shat), heavenly harmony vocals (O'Rourke & Shat) and drumming that switches effortlessly between jazz, pop and country (Patrick Harte). Most importantly, however, there are the superb songs, and it's these even more than the evident ability and glee in their playing that marks out Tiny. Almost all were written by Paula and the band and they put to rhythm wit, warmth and a surgically precise probing of our vanities, not least on the title track. While some tracks brought to mind the Throwing Muses, this was more akin to Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, conjuring via Shat's violin a delicious air of Kurt Weill. Equally outstanding is Heaven, an immensely good-humoured song imbued with boundless joie-de-vivre. Harte sets up a beat that proves as irresistible as the killer melodic hook and the beaming lyrics: "Cause everyday's my birthday and my name is ice cream." A logical move from heaven is to Paula's Guardian Angel, but although the simple, insistent tune and inventive instrumentation - Wally McClellan's marvellous mouth-harp for instance - make it great for us, she admits it can't always have been so easy on her protector. "Through the years I've really bent your ears/ Your shoulder must be tired from my leanin'." Loneliness hurtles along like a bluegrass Cossack dance and the instrumental B-Minor Valentiner combines a gorgeous violin melody - the radiant young girl in her best new dress - with a skilfully played underlying tension that reflects everyone's insecurity on that most charged of days. An album that begins with the alternately creeping and storming Withering ends with the drunkenly eerie Infinity and an unnamed klezmer-style instrumental that also flips repeatedly between gentle dance and frenzy. It's a fitting close for an album with so much energy and bounce. (Maybe that's why "Tigger" appears on the thank-yous!) (DM)
- DM

Bay Area singer-songwriter Paula O'Rourke's alt. country leans heavier into the"alt" territory than "country" coming off owing more to Wilco, Victoria Williams and latter-day Soul Asylum than Tammy Wynette or the Dixie Chicks. It's O'Rourke's quirkiness that is her particular charm, which infects the music of her regular band, Tiny. Similar to the way Tom Waits cleverly revamps the blues and Tin Pan Alley, O'Rourke's skewed approach is refreshing, while remaining tethered to the strict rigors of country music. WILLMETTE WEEK, PORTLAND OREGON
09/2002
- Dave Clifford