Pieta Brown – Mercury (2011) / Blues, Rock

Pieta Brown, the daughter of Grammy-nominated folk/blues singer/songwriter Greg Brown, released her self-titled debut album on Iowa independent label Trailerpark Records in June 2002. With her languid, ethereal delivery, she has weathered numerous comparisons to such singers as the Cowboy Junkies’ Margo Timmins.
The monochrome photo of Pieta Brown on the cover of her album Mercury carries a certain “Mona Lisa” inscrutability. The unusual lighting from beneath nearly washes out her face drawing you almost self-consciously to her gaze. Mercury is unique in the periodic table of elements in that it is the only metal which is liquid in the Earth’s atmospheric conditions. As a literary convention, Pieta uses it with great effect in the title track.
When she sings, “A mercury sky, a mercury sea / A mercury love inside of me” she’s reveling that which changes like quicksilver in her. So, too, like the contents of a broken thermometer on the floor rolling and pooling, the mood of Mercury changes and flows.
Pieta’s sound is one that evolves slowly over time, and Mercury doesn’t indicate any dramatic departure from her previous efforts. If anything, Mercury is a continuation of the distinctive folk-blues style established on her first Red House Records album, 2010’s One and All. She continues, first and foremost, as an observer of the human condition. Never a literal storyteller, she delivers perspective and mood with the details left to be filled in by the listener’s own experience. I often find myself searching for clues to decode the songs, which change at each listen.