It Can Be Done! [KLP248]

It Can Be Done! (KLP248) is an album of new beginnings. The past year has seen Kendl Winter leave the successful bluegrass group The Blackberry Bushes to tour the country as a solo act, walking her banjo into dark bars, smokey music halls and packed amphitheaters night after night. It’s also full of intimacy.  With a voice that is marvelously unique and bold, and songs that are both classically poetic and rooted deep in her own experience, Kendl draws upon an old-time Americana and bluegrass bent that brings to mind the haunting vocal work of Karen Dalton and Gillian Welch.  Her banjo playing on the album is striking, showcasing a kind of expertise that comes from years of companionship with a beloved instrument.  It Can Be Done! is a victory album of sorts, and Kendl’s third release on , the follow up to her beautiful 2012 landmark The Mechanics of Hovering Flight [KLP238]. Recorded by Calvin Johnson on reel-to-reel tape at Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, WA, on It Can Be Done! Kendl is backed by The Summer Gold, Austin Cooper (drums), Joe Capoccia (bass & guitar), and Derek Johnson (cello). Together they explored her year of new horizons.  In sweet spinning songs like “Centrifugal Forces,” Kendl makes even the awkward, arduous task of laundry in a foreign country seem a steady triumph: “I'm out walking, Tulsa wind, stumbling in place again. Who knew it would be so hard to do your laundry in Berlin?”  The following lead tracks “Rosie” and “Dreaming of Babylon,” both convey the spirit Kendl has been working from this past year, the very idea that she can choose to live her life outside of cultural expectations and guidelines, even when it's difficult, even when it's terrifying. That it is, in fact, possible to manifest the life of your dreams.  It can be done! Kendl Winter is currently recording and touring in a duo with Palmer T. Lee, The Lowest Pair. The digital version of this album is available from Bandcamp. Rocking Chair Centrifugal Force Rosie It Can Be Done How to Keep it Hawt The Sky is Green Hands Behind Your Back Dreaming of Babylon Go Easily Huckleberry Blue Black Hole