Photos by Orlando Pina

Where the honest hearts of a few can touch the faded jeans of many. Sallie Ford, hugging her guitar high to her chest, that solid voice that booms and winces all at the same time, made herself heard at The Echo, with her band The Sound Outside serenading their beers. Like an answer to a question that was never posed, their rhythm seeming to greet you at some destination you didn’t know you were traveling to, sincere and welcoming, yet a bit vicious at times. Ford’s voice cuts like a jagged blade, like with “I Swear”, the way she pronounces each syllable two-times more than a word needs, but it’s a signature that few can forge. Her sorrowful voice, triptrapping down the tracks, that guitar rupturing all those preconceived notions of the blues, of a modern take on what it really means to chew on poison ivy and ask for seconds.

Sallie Ford, Jeff Munger, Tyler Tornfelt & Ford Tennis

Sallie Ford and The Sound Outside at The Echo on 08.24.11