Rick Clark's Music I Love Blog: Artist: Leyla McCalla - Album: Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes
Remember the first time you heard “Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry? Every time I hear that song, it feels as timeless and part of its own humid Southern world as the first time I heard it. The first time I listened to “Heart of Gold,” the haunting opening track from Leyla McCalla’s 2013 debut album Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, I had that special haunting feeling.
I was immediately struck with the warmth and immediacy and natural unaffected quality of her voice, plus the songs were so real and unpretentious. Tim Duffy’s production stays out of the way and just lets McCalla spin her magic and there is a load of that. If McCalla had recorded this album with most other producers, my bet is they would’ve cluttered up and sucked the magic out of the performances. Here, she is the star.
For a number of the songs on this album, McCalla wrote music to the poetry of Langston Hughes and some of the results are stunning, particularly “Heart Of Gold” and the especially devastating “Song For A Dark Girl.” (the video I provided here is unusually quiet, so you might need to turn it up.) The studio version on the album will transport you. McCalla’s own originals are impressive, particularly “When Can I See The Valley.”
McCalla is Haitian-American and lives in New Orleans. She sings in French, Haitian Creole, and English, and plays cello, tenor banjo, and guitar. You might have seen her playing with Carolina Chocolate Drops during their last couple of years they were together or maybe noticed her on the excellent recent Smithsonian Folkways album Song of Our Native Daughters, where McCalla is part of an ensemble comprised of Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, and Allison Russell.
Upon hearing Vari-Colored Songs, I immediately booked Leyla to perform at a very special house concert in Columbia, TN and she mesmerized everyone with her quiet focused intensity. When I produced a music festival the next year, I made sure to have Leyla return, which she did with an ensemble. Again, she was a total hit.
Since Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, McCalla has released an impressive set of releases that are fairly easy to find on streaming services. For some reason, Vari-Colored Songs isn’t available on them and there are only a couple of YouTube videos from the album. Fortunately, “Heart of Gold” is one of them. That said, there are a number of great live recordings of songs from the album that impressively demonstrate her earthy soulfulness.
If you like what you hear, check out her other great releases A Day For The Hunter/A Day For The Prey and The Capitalist Blues. YouTube videos of the studio recordings from Vari-Colored Songs are few, but fortunately “Heart of Gold” is available. I have provided a selection of clips here to give you a sense of why I love Leyla McCalla and her music.
Thanks for taking the time to read this listen.