"Patullo [White Widow] exudes a ballsy, rock chick vibe and her music is infectious and mainstream-friendly. You always get the feeling she is one step away from going over the edge, but she never does. - Curve Magazine - Summer, 2011
Q&A with CURVE Magazine
Curve: How will "A Psychological Thriller" album be different from Black Heart album.
White Widow: I'm producing everything and performing everything on it again, so that won't be different. But it is definitely moving in a new direction. I'm doing more fictional writing now, which is pretty new for me. I'm kind of moving out lyrically where I've never gone.
"Bernhard will be backed by a four-piece band, put together by Carla Patullo, the lead singer-songwriter for the rock-punk band White Widow. Many of the songs Bernhard will perform are covers; but they'll be delivered with a twist, as she does in her raw, taunting version of Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly", which appears on the recent comedy album. [I Love Being Me, Don't You.] Expect a mix at the REDCAT show including 80's hair metal songs, R&B, and folk"."
- LA TIMES - August, 2011
"Her splendid band - musical director/pianist Carla Patullo [White Widow], drummer Alex Stickles, guitarist Mike Manning, and background vocalist Jason Joseph - are serious pros."
- The Times Quotidian - August, 2011
Sandra Bernhard - I Love Being Me, Don't You
"Sandra shares the stage with her musical director Carla Patullo [White Widow] who plays a 'mean piano', Alex Stickles on drums, Mike Manning on guitar, and the fantastic Jason Joseph doing back up vocals....The band is great and you can tell, that they are all having a really good time."
- Los Angeles Examiner - August, 2011
WHITE WIDOW - BLACK HEART TOUR/ALBUM 2009-2010
Sandra Bernhard - I Love Being Me, Don't You
"Sandra shares the stage with her musical director Carla Patullo [White Widow] who plays a 'mean piano', Alex Stickles on drums, Mike Manning on guitar, and the fantastic Jason Joseph doing back up vocals....The band is great and you can tell, that they are all having a really good time."
- Los Angeles Examiner - August, 2011
WHITE WIDOW - BLACK HEART TOUR/ALBUM 2009-2010
At the border of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, Fontana presents six bands of varying skill and experience, topped by White Widow, the nom de guerre of Carla Patullo. Her trio plays angst-drenched indie rock that ranges from bombastic to intimate, occasionally within the same song. If you come away thinking Ms. Patullo spent some time studying P.J. Harvey, you'd likely be right, but her music works and she deserves more attention than she gets. - Jim Fusilli, Wall Street Journal, June, 2010
"The nine songs of sturdy yet melodic guitar rock - including a cover of Nicks' "Lady From the Mountain" - show she's no pushover. A worthy heir to the sneering '90s femme-rocker examples of PJ Harvey and fellow Nicks disciple Courtney Love would be a lot closer to the truth."
- Chris Gray, HOUSTON PRESS - July, 2010
BLACK HEART, Album Review
This June release comes from an Austin-based guitarist/vocalist/songwriter who has already played a New Orleans show at Checkpoint Charlie's by the time you read this. Carla Patullo's White Widow character was developed in New York, but there's something Texas about the big emotions in most songs, all written by the Berklee College of Music grad except for a Stevie Nicks cover. She also played all the album's instruments, but does shows with drummer Marty Mack and bassist Colleen Bonner. Recording at home had its positives: the vocals are suitably raw, the guitar tones are nifty, and things are uncluttered. The omnipresent single-note bass drum beat gets monotonous after awhile; but leaves rhythmic opportunities for live expansion. Favorite songs include "Queen Elizabeth," which adds some toms, "Quitter" which contains a sparkling vocal and "Empire," which varies the formula with different guitar/vocal textures. This is a rewarding listening experience I recommend heartily.
-Sun Herald, June, 2010
With music that projects quite a gritty persona, and a performing name - White Widow - and new album - "Black Heart" - whose titles sort of speak for themselves, it might be suspected that Carla Patullo has a past.
In this instance, however, some previous doings may be holding her in good stead, instead of tying her up in webs.
For example, "Black Heart," which sounds emotive and is also very to-the-point in its song construction, was produced by the performer, who also plays all the instruments and recorded the whole CD at her home in Austin, Texas. It may have helped that she graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied songwriting, contemporary writing and production.
So when she comes to the Lucky Dog Music Hall, 89 Green St., Worcester on Wednesday as part of her tour to promote "Black Heart", she'll have some familiarity with the area.
For sure, in fact. "I used to go there (Worcester) to see shows," she said. Besides having been a student in Boston, she grew up in Springfield and will be playing there Saturday at Maximum Capacity in a sort of homecoming concert.
Such revelations don't take any edge off White Widow. Rather, they help you understand Patullo a little bit better and appreciate her sincerity and intensity.
After graduating from Berklee, "I headed out straight to New York," she said, immediately performing at clubs on the city's rock circuit. "That's where I came up with the concept for White Widow." Last Friday in Austin, where she's lived for almost two years, she performed at a "We're Still Queer Honey" benefit at Pine Street Station, opening for the multifaceted, forever-edgy Sandra Bernhard. She also performed with Bernhard. "It was amazing. I'm still running off the energy of that show," she said on Monday as she was getting ready to start the "Black Heart" tour that would begin the next day at Checkpoint Charlie's in New Orleans. "Black Heart" is White Widow's third album. Several tracks from her first, "No Wood To Knock On", were featured on the horror movie "Ice Queen." The White Widow name was inspired by the song "Gold Dust Woman" by Stevie Nicks in which Nicks refers to a black widow. "I am heavily influenced by performers like Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, P.J. Harvey, Sandra Bernhard and Courtney Love. These artists are raw and don't hold anything back." On "Black Heart," White Widow's vocals do have a lovelorn rawness to them, and the rock can be searing. Very skillfully so, in that the guitar playing (by White Widow, of course) is extremely good. As a producer she's not self-indulgent. Once the songs - including a cover of a Stevie Nicks demo, "Lady from the Mountain," that was never released - have said what they have to say, White Widow doesn't waste any time lingering, moving on to the next track at full speed ahead.
- by Richard Duckett (Worcester Telegram) Read More
-Muen Magazine Music Blog, AUSTIN, TX
LIVE REVIEWS
White Widow gets you on your feet while her voice tangles you in her web. From her band you can expect to hear menacing lead guitar lines, melodic bass interjecting with heavy drums, with her intense vocals cutting through as her voice soars high. Her latest release is BLACK HEART.
-Accent on Tampa Bay, February, 2010
Miami Herald, January 2010
Zandland fave White Widow's long awaited new album, 'Black Heart' officially made it's way to the market, and iTunes on September 22, and surely gets the Zandland nod of approval. In true indie form, Ms. Widow (Carla Patullo) took to heart a completely solo approach on the 10-track album, manning all instruments, building unique sounds to hypnotizing vocals, and masterfully producing each track herself.
Fave tracks are the anthem-esque 'Warriors' and the eerie soundscape, 'Empire'. White Widow shows off her signature screaming chops by the end of 'Quitter'; her angry side generates a sort of sonic whiplash. And in a ghostly buildup, White Widow does Stevie Nicks proud with a rendition of Nicks' previously unreleased demo, 'Lady From The Mountain.'
White Widow's last full-length album, "It's My Tragedy" dropped February 2007, marking a major turn towards gritty post-punk vocals matched with raw guitar and heavy bass riffs (think PJ Harvey)...a shift from 2005's more commercially-accessible debut, "No Wood To Knock On". "Black Heart" shows a touch of the softer side of White Widow, on her fresh indie-rock journey, with a heavy-handed diaristic vulnerability that will completely fill your emo needs without ever getting stuffy or generic.
-Zandland Music Blog, October, 2009 Read More
The song "I Break" really breaks her out of the coffeehouse clutch. - Austin Chronicle - August, 2009
Black Heart Video
Zandland fave, White Widow is back with a new video & single, 'Black Heart,' from her upcoming album of the same name. 'Black Heart' marks White Widow's third album, following 'No Wood To Knock On' (2005) and 'It's My Tragedy' (2007). We got a sneak listen to some of the tracks and the album is going to be off the hook! Check out the new video on YouTube (released today, above)!
-Zandland Music Blog, June 2009, Read More
WHITE WIDOW - IT'S MY TRAGEDY ALBUM/TOUR 2007-2009
Dewars/New YorkWhite Widow appears in a Dewars ad in The Village Voice, February 2007
"an irresistible army of bands still screaming their hearts out and holding court from their MySpace pages ... [there's White Widow] when you're ready for emotional and lyrical complexity"
-The Village Voice, August, 2006
La band White Widow proveniente da Boston presenterˆ il suo quarto lavoro discografico sabato 24 febbraio al Blue Note Music Club di Campobasso. Due giorni prima sarˆ presentato in anteprima mondiale a New York. Il trio sarˆ ospite all'interno della la rassegna - concorso Italia Wave love festival, manifestazione dedicata a tutti i gruppi musicali della regione. LÕalbum dal titolo "It's My Tragedy" stato prodotto da Gene Paul ingegnere leggendario di Aretha Franklin e Led Zeppelin mixato da John Plymale (Squirrel Nut Zippers, Superchunk). Le loro influenze musicali: PJ Harvey, Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac, Hall & Oats, ed Interpol. Una voce ammaliante la songwriter della band con un lavoro tutto al femminile, duro, scomodo e bello allo stesso tempo. Un concerto emozionale.
C' una ragione particolare per cui ho inserito questo annuncio su www.piazzaroma.net ed per via del fatto che la cantante si chiama Carla Patullo e ha origini Bojanesi. Tempo fa la contattai tramite Myspace il famosissimo social network dove molti gruppi musicali trovano fortuna, mi rispose immediatamente e mi diede subito l'impressione di essere molto alla mano e sopratutto fiera delle sue origini bojanesi!!! Carla Patullo nata a Springfield da genitori italiani ed ha cominciato a comporre ed esibirsi all'etˆ di 11 anni.Dopo aver frequentato il Berklee College of Music a Boston, dove ha ricevuto diversi premi per il suo talento di compositrice, si trasferita a New York. A New York ha collaborato con alcuni grossi calibri della musica mondiale come Grayson Hugh, il produttore Iain McNally (Amanda Marshall), e il tecnico del suono L. Stu Young (Prince)
- Piazza Roma - Feb 2007
WHITE WIDOW - NO WOOD TO KNOCK ON ALBUM/TOUR 2005-2007
Perhaps the opening refrain of her album explains it best, "It's my birthday, I wanna piss everybody off." She's got a chip on her shoulder the size of an electric guitar and she uses it to lay on the rock extraordinarily thick. This is girl-fronted rock with balls, yet has an
enticing sweetness to it that the Widow uses to lure you into her web. Great songwriting and robust, well-engineered accompaniment make her ultra-emotional vocals shine. (DP)
-IMPACT Press - January, 2006
White Widow / No Wood to Knock On
White Widow delivers some very emotionally charged guitar balladry. Very epic song arrangements wrapped around big female angsty vocals. Any song taken on its own is very pleasant to listen to...Young girls can fire this track up ("Only You") and dream about losing their virginity. White Widow takes the concept of an 80's rock ballad and dresses it up pretty for the year 2005...The production on "No Wood to Knock On" is great, drums sound full and vocals sharp.
-Indulged.com - July, 2005
These songs are seductive and poetic, not really structured but still solidly-composed...I've never heard a menacing love song before – one in which the music is menacing but the lyrics are genuine words of love, sung by a voice that's husky and ominous on the verses and high and sweet on the chorus. I should find that disturbing. Instead, I'm kind of turned on by it...Some tracks are gritted-teeth rants, others are simply mysterious and seductive, but you definitely get the feeling that this woman is a bit off balance. You're never quite safe, even when she's purring invitingly.
-Indie-music.com, Jennifer Layton - July 2005
White Widow / No Wood to Knock On
..."Only You," is a treat that won't rot your teeth in sweetness. Patullo breathes a sexy breeze here about wanting to see the stars tonight. The slinky riff playing in the background matches her tone well. By no means an overplayed love song, it does remind me of why vampires are sexy in the movies. They just are. The one that seduced me though was "Friend." Patullo expresses her disdain with a fair-weather friend who apparently abandons her. The numb plucked guitar works to accentuate her vocal talents as an extra to this almost a cappella tune. There are so many interpretations to pull out of black lace, and metaphorically this is the best metaphor I can use for Ms. Carla. Her work is feminine, tough, awkward and lovely at the same time.
-Mondogordo.com, Kena Sosa - June 2005
"Only You" is my favorite song on the album. It's very straightforward and has great vocals.
-Agouti Music, Joel Edelman - Oct 25, 2005
White Widow / No Wood to Knock On
....fantastic!...really does kick serious ass, and it was my pleasure to hear it!
-Song Critic, Dec. 2004
...growling, angsty vocals and gritty, lovelorn lyrics, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
-Time Out New York, Feb. 2004
...smooth, emotional and powerful and perfectly suited to her passionate songwriting...affectionate singing and emotionally charged lyrics. This gal can really sing...Well done!
- The Metronome Magazine, Boston, November 2000
