PHANTOM

The Ghost Who Walks is the title of Karen Elson's debut CD. Hence the post title. Maybe you've gotta be as old as me to get the reference to the old comic strip charcter.

This is an album that would probably get a lot of attention for who Karen Elson is (a model) and who she is married to (Jack White of White Stripes, Raconteurs and Dead Weather fame). This popped up as a recommendation for me on Amazon, and after reading a few of the customer reviews and listening to the samples, I was intrigued enough to order a copy.


Often albums by celebrities in other fields do not live up to the expectation, yet you still see albums from people like Paris Hilton and Brooke Hogan on the racks. In this case, the album and songs stand on their own, with the ambience of Gershwin or Porter standards alt-country fried with a dash of Neko Case. Elson has woven some intriguing tales of lost love, dashed hope, and romantic betrayal, and doles them out with an inviting voice and an acoustic guitar in a dark and seductive atmosphere.

Her small band features Jackson Smith on guitar, Elson's longtime collaborator Rachelle Garniez on accordion and vocals, and husband-producer Jack White on drums. As I alluded to above, Elson actually has a voice on her, and White's production brings out diversere arrangements and styles.

Her voice is timeless, her writing is fantastic, the backing band consists of some of the finest musicians of our time...Karen Elson definitely deserves a listen!!!