Takoma's Rachel Cross Celebrates Angels and Aliens

By Carolyn Feola

Sure, Rachel Cross might seem like a grownup. Her face has the elegant
angles and lines of a woman, and her hands have the graceful power of a
seasoned musician. But her eyes are bright with wonder, and her face is
framed by sproingy little-girl curls. In her life and on her new CD, Angels
& Aliens, Monsters & Freaks, Rachel pairs a woman's wisdom with a child's
spirit.

This collection of 11 songs sounds inspired by nursery rhymes as much as
folk ballads, Arabic rhythms, and religious chants. Some songs are sung in
French and some in Hebrew, some a cappella and some fully instrumentalized,
but there are elements that thread them all together.

First and foremost is Rachel's unmistakable voice, delicate and rangey and
fluttering with vibrato. She does her own harmony work throughout--a neat
effect, to feel surrounded by singing Rachels.

All the songs of Angels & Aliens also follow a distinct songwriting pattern:
an economy of words and strong repetition, following a pulse-pulse-pulsing
pace. The result is almost hypnotic, as natural as a heartbeat and just as
rhythmic and easy.

On a subtler level, the CD is unified by a sense of almost rebellious
optimism, since each song comes from the same hard-fought hopeful place
within Rachel. The child in her knows that life is a celebration, yet the
woman in her knows it has its darker points. It's the theme of "In This
World," a song Rachel calls her anthem.

"It's about trying to be positive despite everything," Rachel says. "I think
that's the key to happiness."

The song is cheerful with saxophone and acoustic guitar, and its lyrics show
frustration mixed with a determination to keep in high spirits: "well I'm
just trying to keep myself alive/some days I feel I barely can survive/The
tax man's knocking, and the phone's a constant ring/The whole world is
screaming, but I just want to sing/don't bring me down..."

Rachel follows up the song with an anthem of another kind, U2's
international hit "Pride." She included it on the CD after having a dream
about its chorus and then searching out its lyrics. With her pared-down,
intensified acoustic version of it, she hopes to clarify its sad message
about the things we do in the name of love.

"I knew I should do it differently so people could hear," she says.
But Rachel is also out to make us smile. The next track is "Re-Soul Your
Shoes," which she sings in between breaths on her harmonica. It's just as
giddy and straight-up as its name implies.

The last track, "Dancez Tous En Ronde," is a juicy romp, too, but with a
distinctively ethnic flavor--Rachel aptly calls it "my gypsy bat mitzvah
song." Beginning slowly with accordion and hushed, honeydripping vocals, it
picks up pace verse by verse. Tambourine then guitar then bass join in, and
by the time Rachel rolls out her third deliciously throaty "tous en, tous en
rrrrronde!" a chorus of men has waltzed her round and round and round and
everyone's gone dizzy and giggling. It's great fun.

But then, this CD is full of delights. There is lightheartedness in "The
Laundry Song" ("oh darling, how did you make the laundry go away?") and the
title track ("they say alakawyshis and alakazzam..."). There is harmonic
beauty in "K'Shoshana," a vocal and percussive duet with the incomparable
Jaqui MacMillan, and there is feminine intensity in "She Went Walking" and
"Freedom Song."

There is also an all-star local lineup on Angels & Aliens, including Al
Petteway, Amy White, Marco Delmar, Ron Holloway, and former Big Village
bandmates MacMillan and Henry Cross (her husband). After many happy years
with that award-winning DC ensemble, Rachel feels a special kind of
accomplishment with her solo CD.

"It's pretty magical, the whole thing; it's really done what I wanted it to
do," she said. "It's so good to be the queen of this project!"

Rachel Cross's Angels & Aliens, Monsters & Freaks is available at The House
of Musical Traditions in Old Town Takoma Park (301-270-9090), at amazon.com,
and through Rachel's website, rachelcross.com. Also at the website is her
performance schedule, including "Woodystock," a Woody Guthrie tribute
concert on Sunday, March 25 at 7 PM at the Metro Cafe, 14th and P Streets
NW.