ABOUT THE ALBUM

Born of a desire to capture the sound of her dynamic, one-of-a-kind solo acoustic shows, Mary Cutrufello's new Acoustic EP is a raw, penetrating experience. The five songs include reworked old standards ("Sunny Day," "Lovin' You Beats All I've Ever Seen") and unreleased material ("Long as I'm Dreamin'," "Love's Despair," and the brand-new "That's What You Get.") Together, they offer a true document of the state of Cutrufello's art as a singer and acoustic guitar player.

"Sure, there's [2001's solo-acoustic] Songs from the 6," she says, "but that was almost 10 years ago. I'd just started figuring out the acoustic presentation at that time. Now, a decade later, I feel like I've really come a ways in that department. I felt like the time was right for a little update."

Here's the update: Mary Cutrufello's acoustic guitar skills have become as unique and powerful as her well-known abilities on the Telecaster. And her voice, now five years removed from the vocal nodes that sidelined her for much of the mid-'00s, is an instrument of stunning emotion and depth. Mary says this about that:

"The guitar playing has evolved, purely out of necessity, into something I think is pretty cool. Yeah, I guess it's 'cause I never buckled down and learned to do it the 'right' way, but whatever I was doing seemed musical, and people dug it, so I decided to hone that instead. It's certainly not the first time I've made it up as I went along!"

"The voice, obviously, is something I have a little less control over, but I gotta say I like the post-nodes sound. And now that I'm back in shape as a singer, I find I can do even more with the new voice than I ever could with the old one. While I've lost certain parts of my range, I have a lot more I can do with the parts that are left. It's a lot of fun to sing these days."

Acoustic EP is available as a download only at this time. The download includes full artwork, credits, and lyrics.