Winter Moons Niles MI

Winter Moons

Spirit Nation

Karuna Records, 2001

REVIEW BY: Duke Egbert

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/11/2002

Spirit Nation sounds complicated. After all, the lead singer ishalf Native American and half Israeli, and sings in Ojibway,English, and Hebrew; that in and of itself makes this a ratherambitious project with definite UN-peacekeeping-force overtones.With something this eclectic, one is always apprehensive as towhether the goulash of cultural references will work. On Winter Moons, it does work, and works astonishinglywell.

Make no mistake; Spirit Nation is very much lead singer TamaraPodemski's project. While the backing musicianship is competent totalented, providing an interesting synthesis of traditional,trance, pop, and dance as background, the feature is Podemski'sarching, intricate, razor-precise vocals. While superficiallysimilar to New Age etheric warblers like Enya, Podemski has moregrit and fire to her voice. The liner notes indicate that this wasenvisioned as a tribute to her twin heritages, and the passion andfire in her singing shows that she truly did mean to honor allthose who have gone before her, and better than that, succeeded inthat honoring.

Production wise, Winter Moons is flawless. (Ah, why I like the 21st century-- the fact that there are fewer CDs that sound bad on therecording end). The musicianship is good, albeit rarely noteworthy,save the delicate flutework of Steve Tavaglione. Even when Podemskidoesn't sing, such as on "Spirit Medicine", the CD doesn't losesteam.

Tracks worth of note include the opening "Ododoyuniwan", themixed Ojibway , Hebrew, and English of "All My Relations", thestrong triumphant "Iroquoian Sky Woman", and the gentle "Tipikan(Lullaby)". There isn't a bad track on Winter Moons, however; it's solid from beginning to end.