Leyla McCallaVari-Colored SongsDixiefrog2013A sometime member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Leyla McCalla brings an array of influences to her unusual debut. Principally it's a tribute to Langston Hughes, feted poet of the 1920s Harlem renaissance, with Hughes's laconic verse set to simple arrangements of banjo and guitar, though the classically trained McCalla also weaves in cello, most often as a plucked, rhythmic pulse. Raised in New York by Haitian parents, she now lives in New Orleans, and five antique Creole songs, in that baffling French hybrid, provide a rootsy counterpoint to Hughes's elegant rhymes. McCalla's light, unfussy vocals complete a charming, resonant spell.
