Sarah Blackwood

Way Back Home

Stomp/Warner

Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

10/21/2008 9:33am

As the frontwoman of Burlington, Ont.'s The Creepshow, Sarah Blackwood is slowly developing a reputation as one of Canadian punk's best singers. What's not that well known about Blackwood is that she was a solo country artist prior to joining The Creepshow. Way Back Home is her solo debut and Stomp has some balls to release a country record. Leadoff track "Lonely Parade" shows some promise with Blackwood accompanied by her dad and brother Blackwood on guitar and harmonica, and Hooch Parkins, who plays banjo, mandolin and lap steel on the track. The song is one of the strongest on the record, which unfortunately falters thereafter. Its main problem is that, save for a few tracks, most of its songs onlyfeature Blackwood's vocals and simple acoustic guitars. There's very little deviation from that formula, and it hurts the quality of the songwriting. Most of the tracks on Way Back Home show great promise, but their instrumentation isn't as fully developed or fleshed out as it could be. This might partly be because Way Back Home was recorded at the same time as The Creepshow's recent sophomore album, Run For Your Life. Blackwood has said recording both albums at once was stressful and difficult, and unfortunately, her solo release has suffered as a result.