A heart for Girl Pop

Katie Petersen shoots for the stars with this dazzling album

Katie is singing America's real song: Love stinks, but we gotta have it!

Millions can identify with her longing for true love and her disappointment with relationships, as expressed in the songs she wrote for her new album, I Wrote You a Song.

This album is a real class act. It's an amazing blend of naughty and nice, disappointment and hope, slick schtick and true art, Girl Pop and serious poetry. Musically it's actually pretty wild.

It's definitely not Bluegrass -- tho she does slip in a whiff of her refined Bluegrass fiddle somewhere, just to add a dash of spice to this delicious brew.

Every one of these polished cuts has something strong to recommend it. As I've said many times previously about Katie's work, you hear her deeper on every rehearing.

Katie's band, the Petersens, has showcased one of her album's songs, Sherwood, in a Blegrass version.

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In fact, I suggest an inexpensive three-CD gift idea (you'll have to buy each CD separately): At Petersen Band merch you can purchase hard copies, or go to the streaming platforms for electronic copies.

Katie's new album
Julianne's new album
Any Petersens album

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I Wrote You a Song album playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRTSFgot_wgpaUkUI59OoWoMFgPRcn7ve

Lyrics for the songs on Katie's album
https://outfilex.blogspot.com/2023/10/lyrics-for-katies-album-i-wrote-you-song.html

Following is a heads-up on the cuts:

Sherwood
Will you be my Robin Hood?
Rescue me from all these lies?

Sherwood is a number with a real Pop pull. Women everywhere wish they could have Sir Galahad -- or Robin Hood -- rescue them from a love-starved existence and bring them into some Utopia where Love is Supreme.

Katie lays this one down with high craft and high appeal.

Waiting for You to Grow Up
Men! They're really just boys! Sounds like a bit of impatience creeping in. How long can we go on like this?! Musically really sprightly.

Bye, Bye Baby
Do you want to say I do?
Well, I don't, not to you.

This one is another tasty Popsicle. Sort of a meld of cotton candy and girl angst. Yeah, and it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it. Wildly fun.

A Tisket, a Tasket
My heart was full of loving hopes, but one by one your sorry notes
have started to affect my basket weaving. So now I'm leaving.

The trouble with trying to say something meaningful about some of these songs is that the meaning lies in the lyrics, music and performance.

Airplane Mode
Give me a signal you miss me a little
and I'll hop on the quickest flight

This very positive song -- in the spirit of Get Me a Ticket for an Airplane -- hides that one disconcerting point in the middle of the song. I'm coming home now!!! (well, maybe, maybe not).

But, this is a real GIRL ALBUM, so get used to it, man. Musically, as I said, it is a crazy blend of working girl angst, poetic art and teeny bopper bop. But the amazing thing is, somehow, IT WORKS.

What'll I Do?
I want to learn how to fly
But you see this rope I’ve tied?
Every time I lift my wings into the wind
I hear uncertainty reply
What if he doesn’t love me, what’ll I do?

Katie should be exceptionally pleased with this very fine piece. A truly touching poem about a tender girl who fears taking the plunge into love -- where, after all, it's easy to get badly burned. Yet she ends on a positive note, perched on that branch, ready to let go and let...

A beautiful song, musically it is incomparable.

Faux Fir
And darling you don't love me
But I'd rather face the truth
than spend another year of make-believe with you

You're a real gym-bo, with nowhere to go, is the lament. No one likes fake news, or fake love either. You're all show, but no glow. This is a nice bouncy number.

I'd Call Home
The kind of love that seeks your best no matter how far off you roam
If I were you then I’d call home

This is a lament about a bust-up for which she blames herself. I suppose she's pleading, Call me, Honey... please. It's another one of Katie's deep and refined pieces.

Farewell Waltz
Note the title of this moody instrumental.

The lonely hearts theme is big in the music industry, of course, and Katie has hit the bullseye with I Wrote You a Song.