Alison Pipitone's Retrodyne

f there's an indie rock and roll album definitely worth purchasing this summer, it will be openly gay singer/songwriter Alison Pipitone's latest release, the superb Retrodyne, a fresh-sounding, high-energy CD that has absolutely no bad moments at all from the moment you spin it until its final chord.

Pipitone, a resident of Buffalo, N.Y. (where she moved after a very long period in Los Angeles) is an accomplished guitar player with a strong voice that evokes Joan Jett, Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow with a touch of the blues. She's a fan of that genre.

During a long telephone interview conducted on the week of July 19th, she revealed that lately she has been listening a lot to Etta James' Mystery Lady (a tribute to Billie Holiday) in addition to Lucinda Williams, Elliot Smith, Paul Simon's Graceland and the B-52's first album (remember Rock Steady?).

Unlike many other out musicians, Alison isn't concerned with writing to a specific audience. "The goal", she told me, "is not to think about anybody but myself." whilst writing her songs. She tries to be as free as possible, because she feels that thinking of a specific audience would make her too self-conscious. "You're your own worst critic", she told me during the interview.

The album opens with I Don't Remember You, a song she wrote about a breakup. In the words, she claims to remember specific things about the a failed relationship, such as:

your hands as they found me in the darkness
I remember your eyes
heavy with pain...
But I don't remember you She tells me she was reluctant to write about that song as she felt like talking about the corny memories that come along with the pain of the end of an affair. "You break up with someone", she told me, "and you think about a pair of sneakers, and they feel strange - it's only weird"

In the end, she realized that everything "is related, and you can talk about love" in a song without having to feel too bad about it.

Another personal moment is Cee Cee Sean, her response to September 11, a song she wrote shortly after she heard about the attacks.

Sean was a friend she had who happened to be at the World Trade Center that fateful morning and that, sadly, was not among the survivors.

Cee Cee was a flight attendant on Flight 93 (which crashed over a Pennsylvania field), who she'd read about in a magazine.

"She was a cop", Alison said, "but she had kids and gave that up so she could be safer, and then she took on a new career."

The words, which do not mention 9/11 directly, are definitely poignant once you learn what inspired them. They're played under a constant E chord giving the music the sound of a sad, unfinished goodbye:

Got to get you on the phone
Got to get you on the phone
Got to hear you say I love you, it's OK...
Got you pressed against my head
Got your blankets in my bed
Got to get you on the phone
Got to get you back home...
It's a beautiful day
But don't fly away...

The only song in the album not written by Pipitone is Dimestore Blues, a twelve bar rock and roll blues by Rose Bond that sounds like a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute to Chuck Berry, specially through the guitar licks.

Another fine moment is the boozy and bluesy That Story With The Brown Eyed Man, a song that sounds as if The Doors had been jamming with Blues Brother & The Holding Company in a boozy San Francisco bar in the 60s. When I asked Alison about that song, she said it has a personal story to it but she wouldn't talk about it. "Do you have brown eyes?" she asked, and left it at that.

I also liked Dancing Girls On the Tables, in which she invites a friend to a late-night party that has "food, tons of booze, and indoor pool and a barbecue and dancing girls on the tables" among many other interesting things. The arrangement suggests a slow-train picking up speed, a pace which goes back and forth as the truth about the party comes to light.

One of my favorites is the acoustic Getting Married, which also, it turns out, is preferred by Alison herself. "It's a fantasy," she told me, "about how I would feel about someone if I were getting married."

The lyrics, which are backed by a beautiful acoustic guitar and bass arrangement that brings out a lot of feeling to Alison's voice:

You don't know it yet, but we're getting married
You don't but we're gonna have some babies
You don't know it but we've always been together
You don't know it but you've loved me forever…