Soozie Tyrell: White Lines - 2003

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Before joining Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band on violin in the early 2000s, Soozie Tyrell played with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes and Mrs. Springsteen, Patti Scialfa. On this 2003 solo album, she sang all her own songs, proving herself to be a talented songwriter in the Lucinda Williams country rock mode. 

Growling and purring, with a sexy, throaty sort of voice, Tyrell put across country-tinged semi-autobiographical tales of a life spent on the road, dating back to her childhood as a daughter of a father in the military and from later years hanging out in Greenwich Village with her girlfriends. 

This is, to date, the only solo album she has put out, as she carries on, year in, year out, touring with Springsteen. It is a more than acceptable effort, though, so it is a bit of a shame that no further albums were ensuing. 

Springsteen joins Soozie on White Lines - playing guitar on a tale of being in the back of her father’s car with her two sisters, watching the white lines go by, driving to Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. It is a vibrant rock number, with some evocative “on the road at truckstops” lyrics. 

Out On Bleecker Street lifts the mood, and is an E Street-ish joyful rocker, with Soozie singing about putting her heels on and partying with her mates on New York’s Bleecker Street. It is a catchy, animated number and one of my favourites on the album. 

The beautiful, vivid Chapin Carpenter-esque Everything Gold, complete with mournful violin solo from Soozie, concludes what really is a very stimulating and entrancing album. Such a pity there haven’t been any more.

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