Song of the Week: All The Luck by Leslie Krafka

I love Leslie Krafka's voice. It has a vulnerability and earnestnest to it, like an early Linda Rondstat. Listening to Leslie, you feel like you've known her for years. She uses that intimate sound to great effect in her song, "All The Luck." In this waitress'-eye-view of drinking to forget, Leslie paints a vivid picture of what it's like to feel stuck as others (and life itself) seem to pass you by. Drawing on the influence of her fellow Texas songwriters, Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker, she puts you smack dab in the middle of the story. With lines like, "No one comes here 'cause they're happy, but happy's what they're looking for," she sings with the experience of one who knows. But despite the somber tone of her lyrics, the music is surprisingly upbeat and wonderfully melodic. In the end, the two opposing forces reconcile as Leslie confesses that "What lies in me is like the spring underneath the drifts of snow." And it's that ray of hope in all our lives that keeps depression from turning to despair. And with that little bit of hope, sometimes all we need to make it is a little luck. Having heard and felt this song, I wish Leslie "all the luck" in the world!