Resolutions Be Damned! — Carolyn Wonderland Gets ‘Miss Understood’

Or maybe the blues does her. Catch my drift?

Her new album, Miss Understood, tells a new story, though. The title track taps into her experience getting arrested in Travis County the week after the U.S. government went to war.

“People thought I was there because you ‘hate the troops.’ I don’t. I have nothing but respect of people who put their lives on the line just like I do for police officers. I just don’t think the war is the answer,” she said.

The experience must have really gotten under her skin, by the sounds of it.

“I felt it was ridiculous because I’ve been in protests since I was a kid. I know what my legal rights are. I was absolutely within my legal rights when I was arrested,” she said.

Here’s more: “I hate being misunderstood. The truth is I do the best I can to be understood before I die because we all have a short period here.”

Well said.

To Wonderland, the creative process happens in a much more matter-of-fact way. She has experiences. She writes about them. She sings about them. She records them. Then, she goes on tour with them.

And things haven’t changed much since her last album Bloodless Revolution was released five years ago.

“I just keep playing,” she said. “I go in and see which ones tell a story. You just throw a bunch of stuff on the wall and see what sticks.”

The Austin-based singer and multi-instrumentalist laid 20 tracks down, and 12 made it on the record. Six are hers. The others are covers from Bruce Robison, JJ Cale, Terri Hendrix, and Rick Derringer.

The album was produced by nine-time Grammy-winner Ray Benson, who was very cool to Wonderland, she said.

“I loved it. It was cool. I was worried that I might be intimidated because he’s so cool and because he’s so rather large in stature and reputation,” she said. “As it turned out he was really, really kind. He was ready to try many different kinds of approaches. I felt free to goof off. He lit a nice fire under my rear end.”

As for her guest musicians, she had this to say:

“Me and Cole (El-Saleh) have been in a band together for ever and ever, so it’s fun to have your brother in their with you. We got to try out different rhythm sections on different songs and see what happens. There’s some songs that I think, ‘Oh, man, Frosty would play that awesome,’ and then what do you know? He was available.

“Getting to play with Jaime (Oldaker) was a big surprise. Gawd, the man’s a clock. He’s really good. I didn’t have to explain to him anything about how a song went. It was just like one, two, three, four, and there he was. ‘That was exactly what I would have told you to play.’

“The same with the bass. Cole plays all the bass so it was fun in the studio going, ‘ I wonder how this would sound with an upright. Glen (Fukunaga) playing stuff is so classy and so beautiful, and in the same breath to go, ‘But for Still Alive And Well, let’s get John Bondle.’ I go crazy.

By the way, Wonderland has no special fondness or fear for lions, though she says her second loves are her cats. I asked since both Hendr