REESE McHENRY SINGS WITH SPIDER BAGS Bad Girl LP (SOPHOMORE LOUNGE)

Don't know much about the participants here, but I'm learning. Spider Bags have been around for awhile, and have released records on Birdman and Merge, as well as a previous 7" on this label, Sophomore Lounge, but I don't think I'd heard the band before this LP. Reese McHenry I hadn't heard of at all, but that's her on the cover, and she's the lead vocalist here, apparently well-known in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for her powerful bluesy/country rock'n'roll singing with a band called The Dirty Little Heaters, but under-recorded, as she's been dealing with health issues for the last few years. The Heaters released a 7" in 2008 and a CD in 2010, but Bad Girl is a sort of an overdue debut vinyl LP for McHenry. As backing band, the Spider Bags are a good-ole guitar/bass/drums trio, playing hard-edged soulful roots rock. Ms. McHenry makes it a quartet, and has a great voice, soulful, wailing, clear as a bell. There's a decent amount of actual Grace Slick power and character going on here, among other things, such as roots and country and honest-to-goodness cowpunk. They play some originals and some covers. "Leanin' on You Too Much" is a Joe South tune that they tear up pretty good, with great overdubbed background vocals and sax, and McHenry really makes the Lee Moses oldie "Bad Girl" her own for the opening cut, but the originals blend right in, like "Painter Blues," written by Spider Bags vocalist/guitarist Dan McGee, and "Mexico City" and the super-hooky "On the 45" by McHenry. The steel guitar by John "One Take" Brown is really nice too. A proverbial good'un!