ROOTSTIME -Netherlands
by Ronny Bervoets

(TRANSLATION:) Romi, her first name already seems an indication (pronounced raw-me) Indeed, her lyrics give us an intimate look inside her soul. Her strong voice and the raw guitarsound, along with that one of master-producer Gurf Morlix, make this one a perfect follow-up cd for"Sweet Something Steady", also produced by Gurf. It also creates a perfect background for her lyrics about drugs, love, sex and the hard live on the road. Both get help from Chris Carmicheal a.k.a "Chopper", a wonderful drummer and guitarplayer, but here mostly on drums .His own cd was reviewed on this site more than a month ago, and he is one of the Perpetrators for the moment, performing as u duo right now. But that aside, what we wanna talk about here is Romi's latest cd "Achin In Yer Bones" . As we already expected, it's a great record once again. We were very impressed by "Sweet Something Steady" which got her an award for "Songwriter Of The Year", as we already mentioned, also produced by Gurf Morlix. This time, his influence seems even stronger. Romi poetic lyrics make the songs sound soft and tender, even sometimes fragile, but compared to the previous this record turns out to be a bit darker and edgy. An example for that is the raw bluesy sound of "If The Lord Don't Love You", a song with even some minor early Stones influences. Together with "Tire Marks" this gives the album some real "power" and bite, but mostly the softer, but very intense songs are on the upper hand. Songs filled with craftmanship and finesse The exceptional guitarwork by Romi and Gurf takes every song to a higher level and the combination of their voices is of an intense beauty. The cd was dedicated to Willie P Bennett, de great mandolineplayer and Fred Eaglesmith's right hand for about 25 years, who died about a year ago. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to see him perform with Fred three years ago. Our personal favorite songs on this one are "Just Like Me", but mostly "Mercy On Me" a stong duet with Gurf. A wonderful song with a lot of class on a very strong album. (RON)

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