Kyra Gordon, TRAVELER. It’s always amazing how many great singers there are, no matter where you look. Kyra Gordon is based in the Bay Area, but her full-fledged vocals and wondrous songs could be from several areas of America. The strength in her voice comes across from the very first notes of the opening song on her powerful new album TRAVELER, sounding like this is her collection to put through her power. There is a strength to these songs that the woman has pointed to previously, but TRAVELER she has definitely delivered. The way she can highlight a folk-fledged song like “Balloons on Your Grave” and still keep the dynamics a full-tilt shows a degree of beauty that isn’t heard that often. And that’s true on all the eight original songs Gordon has written for TRAVELER, which takes a lot of ambition these days. But that is one of the real achievements Kyra Gordon has been displaying her entire career: ambition. Her vocals and keyboards can float through folk-filled deepness to rock-edged kicks. There is no way this woman is going to be boxed in. California has always been the land of new artists and new sounds, and Young is here to show it will hopefully always be that way. Songs like “Nashville You Fooled Me” to “F U Cancer” show a new arrival who is making up her own rules. It’s all here.
