JONNEINE ZAPATA – CAST THE DEMONS OUT

The details surrounding Jonneine Zapata are sketchy, perhaps deliberately so. Cast the Demons Out is the first album for this LA singer (released in this country on the discerning Laughing Outlaw label) and her stage reputation is of a woman with a stare that makes grown men cower, with a presence that may be the incarnation of Jim Morrison, and a dusky voice of fiery intensity. If you are starting to think PJ Harvey then i wouldn’t dissuade you from that impression. Not that Ms Zapata is one-dimensional, her ability to inhabit those dark, badlands (Springsteen reference intentional) takes many shades, and the quieter moments like the haunting I’ll Lay Down My Life are highlights of an album that is an impressive opening salvo. Indeed this is an album that gets stronger and stronger the deeper you get into it. When Jonneine sings on the second last song: “This is my rifle..And i’m a real cowboy, Your a real cowboy too” she does so with more menace than El Mariachi; and the closing Out in the Woods plays like a gospel ode. This is one seriously kick-ass debut.

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