LISA MILLS

I'M CHANGING

2015-01-11

With a rich, expressive voice that landed her a spot touring with Big Brother & the Holding Company and an unflinching willingness to dissect her feelings, Mississippi native Lisa Mills is a force to be reckoned with. This release finds her revisiting tracks first released in 2005 and adding three new ones. The 12 tracks that now make up the disc explore the insanity of a love that keeps you in an unhappy relationship, "I Don't Want to Be Happy", the difficulty that creeps into relationships when one partner evolves but the other remains static, "I'm Changing", the heartbreak of learning that promises of unending love can have an expiration date, "Eyes So Blue", the need for truth in relationships, "The Truth", and the quest for just one good reason to keep dreams alive, "I Need A Little Sunshine". Her pointed self reflection as revealed through lines such as "And I kneel at the alter in the church of painful truth" on "I Don't Want To Be Happy or "Make it, we just won't make it/I think I really knew right from the start" from "Shake It" make the songs ring honest and true. While the blues visits this disc from time to time, such as on the Rev. Robert Wilkins' "I Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down" and the Jimi Hendrix staple, "Little Wing", there is nary a boogie nor a shuffle to be found. Instead, Mills and crew travel a path filled with a cappella gospel, "Tell Me", island grooves that sound straight off a Jack Johnson (the pop star, not the bluesman) disc, "Eyes So Blue", folky pop with a good time summer vibe, "Take My Troubles", and steamy swamp funk, "Shake It". As good as her voice it throughout this disc it is hard to pick where it shines brightest but "Rain in the Summertime" features its broad range as it segues from fragility to power as she discovers love. While I have not heard the original version of these tunes, whatever work was done to produce what is included here was well worth the effort. SMITTY