Devils on Horseback and Other Odd Journeys

Devils on Horseback

And Other Odd Journeys

CD Review

Stories written and performed by Geraldine Buckley

$15.00 for the CD or $12.00 for the MP3 download at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/geraldinebuckley2

CD Reviewed by Linda Goodman

Those listeners who have heard Geraldine Buckley’s first CD, Destination Slammer, will welcome this new recording, which invites us to join her on yet more of her “hilarious, true, inadvertent adventures.”

Devils on Horseback, the title track, holds forth lovely memories of Geraldine’s Aunt Eileen, a loveable eccentric who shares Geraldine’s love of wrestling. Ringside excitement and, curiously, a new restaurant menu item combine to create a new family “character.”

A quest for a fabled Midnight Feast at a convent boarding school leads to hilarious escapades with results quite different from those found in Enid Blyton novels. Lemons are made out of lemonade, however, and adventure still wins the day.

Those of you who saw Geraldine win the National Storytelling Festival’s first slam have already heard a piece of Hitchhiking, in which her mother’s desire for her to have adventures leads to a strange ride. What you did not hear were the tender moments between mother and daughter that followed. Sweet memories linger long after the story ends.

Dinner With Bob recalls Geraldine’s attempt to get over a bad break-up by turning her attention to a new romance, even though she knows that “men are not like socks. You can’t just exchange them one for the other.” The replacement relationship fairs no better than the first one, but years later, a random meeting produces new understanding that makes for a lasting friendship.

Daddy’s Ashes introduces the listener to Geraldine’s father, a man who loves the Mediterranean; who lives to laugh and to make others do the same. Discoveries of forfeited dreams produce sad realizations, yet deepen appreciation for opportunities resulting from such sacrifice. Even a soap opera-like turn at life’s end cannot prevent a woman on a mission from carrying out her father’s wishes.

The stories end too soon (have 75 minutes really passed?) with Celtic Blessings for God’s protection and peace. This CD is part hilarity, part heartbreak, and 100 percent truth. Geraldine’s talent as a writer and performer leaves listeners who have never heard her before feeling like they intimately know this woman. What a wonderful gift!