L'entredeux

Chanson meets Americana in Marianne Dissard's heart-melting French-language debut album, co-written & produced by Joey Burns of Calexico, with John Convertino on drums, Mickey Raphael, Naïm Amor, Rob Burger and scores of Tucson musicians contributing. Not just another Calexico intervention, this is truly Marianne and Joey's album, stemming from a long friendship rooted in a shared love for the musics of both countries and the baroque of the American West.

Tucson-based, French-born singer and lyricist Marianne Dissard's debut album, 'L'Entredeux', was co-written and produced by Calexico's frontman Joey Burns in their hometown of Tucson, Arizona. It is a stunning, sultry French-language pop album that draws on multiple eras and styles; There's an echo of 1960s ye-ye auteurs such as Francoise Hardy, a healthy dose of classic musette and chanson (as seen through the filters of the modern Parisian revivalists) and, perhaps more importantly, the eclectic sensibilities of the 21st Century American indie scene, which brings successive layers of pop, rock, blues and folk to bear, and gives this album a distinctive, alluring feel. The all-embracing fluidity of the American indie scene gives this disc an extra dose of that magical "j'ne c'est quoi".

Dissard may be best known for dueting with Calexico on "The Ballad of Cable Hogue", from Calexico's Hot Rail (Marianne was Madame to Joey Burns' lovestruck gold digger) and Burns (co-producer) returns the favor by giving 'L'Entredeux' an arid luster, full of soundtrack strings, curious accordion, and (Calexico's) John Convertino's rumbling, shuffling drums - few drummers have a sound as immediately recognizable as Convertino. Long-time Willie Nelson cohort Mickey Raphael lends high-desert harmonica to "Sans-Façon", and Amor himself even adds snappy guitar licks to "L'Embellie" and ""Ce Visage-Là". Burns' Wurlitzer turns "Les Confettis" into a dark carnival, then ends "Merci de Rien du Tout" with a lengthy sound collage outro pasted together with pieces of a sampled French lesson.