From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V8 #47 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Friday, March 19 2004 Volume 08 : Number 047 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- a message from Susan Werner ["Susan Werner News" ] Re: a message from Susan Werner ["john vavrek" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:53:46 -0500 From: "Susan Werner News" Subject: a message from Susan Werner hey everybody - alerting the chicago area people to a few things: 1) there's a Susan Werner in Store appearance 2 p.m. saturday March 20th at the Borders in Oak Park, Illinois. address, 1144 w. lake street (lake and harlem), in oak park. phone 708 386 6927 2) the two shows at schuba's on saturday night (7 and 10 p.m.) are also awareness-raising events for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. you're encouraged to bring canned food, especially canned fruits, vegetables, and hi protein foods such as meats and beans, we'll get them to the depository warehouse. Schuba's is at Southport and Belmont on the North Side. phone: 773 327 0552 this weekend's shows: 3/19/2004 Charlotte's Web for Performing Arts Rockford IL 815-624-7692 8:00 pm 3/20/2004 Schuba's Chicago IL 773-327-0552 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm and here are two recent reviews of I Can't Be New: "...she conquers the cabaret jazz/pop scene with sublime originals that sound like Great American Songbook classics... Jonathan Takiff/Philadelphia Daily News From All Music Guide: Susan Werner's Koch debut, and her sixth outing overall, is a collection of self-penned tunes in the manner, spirit, and flavor that spending a late night working in an office on Tin Pan Alley might provide. There is a beautiful, smoky, jazzy feeling that reminds one simultaneously of Hoagy Carmichael's more laid-back moments, Jerome Kern's humor, and the deep nostalgic atmospherics of Tom Waits' early Tin Pan Alley-influenced material-- without the barfly surrealism. That said, Werner's latest is a thoroughly modern recording. From the opening piano shimmers of the title track, which opens the disc, she comes out with it straightaway -- "Coffee, ham and eggs/I can be your dinner" -- and seemingly throws all notions of modern-day PC lyric acceptability to the wind, thank god. Werner's lyric sensibility keeps its wit and never gives up the dignity of her protagonist as she states in a matter of fact way that she can be all things but new. It's a beautiful line in the sand that listeners don't hear much anymore in American song. This isn't defiance; it's simply acceptance and a humorous but profound truth. All the best pop songs have them. This album is full of them. On "Late for the Dance," a bowed bass and clarinet accompany her piano and vocal as she offers a tale of love's regret that is full of whimsy and pondering of what might have been. The full-fledged swing of "Seeing You Again" -- complete with the effect of a scratchy 78-rpm record under the opening vocal for effect -- erases time and space considerations and instead iterates the song as a finely crafted work that situates the listener in a place of ease and empathy. But these three cuts offer just a glimpse through the window of the completely contemporary setting of "I'm Not Sure," with its smoky, sultry flamenco-styled guitar, string quartet, solo cello, mandolin, and shadowy hand percussion negotiating the terrain between the blues, fado, and sultry bossa nova. Likewise, "No One Needs to Know," where Werner is accompanied only by her guitar and Eugene Friesen's cello, is a torch ballad whispered in the stillness of a love furtively begun and acceded to. In its secret lies its possibility. The finger-popping standup bass and jazzed-up "doo wee" choruses in "Philanthropy," with Dave Mattacks' hand percussion, invert the entire Tin Pan Alley instrumental dictum by stripping everything to the barest notion of song itself -- and what a song. This 13-song set closes with that same 78 lisping in the background as Werner's voice comes across the void singing a husky, brazen love song that offers up her shortcomings as possibilities for gaining the other's devotion; yet they are always in the realm of "maybe if I did," not "if I do." She's accepting her protagonist for who she is, and it's enough for the truth of the song; whatever the desired other wants is immaterial. The piano may not quite assent to her vocal in its wistful shapes and dulcet tonal wishes, but the singer's merely nodding to it in the corner of an empty room, singing and playing into the night, out of that same office on Tin Pan Alley. The cycle is complete, the tunes have been written, and it's time to go home. This is a brilliantly constructed, soulful, and cleverly tender effort by a songwriter and musician who is in such complete command of her gifts that it's almost scary. In a sense it's fair to say that listeners should forget everything they know of Susan Werner and encounter her now, in the fully present articulation of her considerable gifts.-- Thom Jurek HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 23:24:24 -0800 From: "john vavrek" Subject: Re: a message from Susan Werner she comes out with it straightaway -- "Coffee, ham and eggs/I can be your dinner" ...diNNer... now that conjures up a little different picture..... say no more. - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Werner News" To: Cc: Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 6:53 PM Subject: a message from Susan Werner > hey everybody - > > alerting the chicago area people to a few things: > > 1) there's a Susan Werner in Store appearance 2 p.m. saturday March 20th at the > Borders in Oak Park, Illinois. address, 1144 w. lake street (lake and > harlem), in oak park. phone 708 386 6927 > > 2) the two shows at schuba's on saturday night (7 and 10 p.m.) are also > awareness-raising events for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. you're > encouraged to bring canned food, especially canned fruits, vegetables, and > hi protein foods such as meats and beans, we'll get them to the depository > warehouse. Schuba's is at Southport and Belmont on the North > Side. phone: 773 327 0552 > this weekend's shows: > > 3/19/2004 Charlotte's Web for Performing Arts Rockford IL 815-624-7692 8:00 pm > 3/20/2004 Schuba's Chicago IL 773-327-0552 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm > > > and here are two recent reviews of I Can't Be New: > > "...she conquers the cabaret jazz/pop > scene with sublime originals that sound like Great American Songbook > classics... Jonathan Takiff/Philadelphia Daily News > > From All Music Guide: > > Susan Werner's Koch debut, and her sixth outing overall, is a collection > of self-penned tunes in the manner, spirit, and flavor that spending a late > night working in an office on Tin Pan Alley might provide. There is a > beautiful, smoky, jazzy feeling that reminds one simultaneously of Hoagy > Carmichael's more laid-back moments, Jerome Kern's humor, and the deep > nostalgic atmospherics of Tom Waits' early Tin Pan Alley-influenced > material-- without the barfly surrealism. That said, Werner's latest is a > thoroughly modern recording. From the opening piano shimmers of the title track, > which opens the disc, she comes out with it straightaway -- "Coffee, ham and > eggs/I can be your dinner" -- and seemingly throws all notions of > modern-day PC lyric acceptability to the wind, thank god. Werner's lyric > sensibility keeps its wit and never gives up the dignity of her protagonist as she > states in a matter of fact way that she can be all things but new. It's > a beautiful line in the sand that listeners don't hear much anymore in > American song. This isn't defiance; it's simply acceptance and a > humorous but profound truth. All the best pop songs have them. This album is full > of them. > > On "Late for the Dance," a bowed bass and clarinet accompany her piano > and vocal as she offers a tale of love's regret that is full of whimsy and > pondering of what might have been. The full-fledged swing of "Seeing You > Again" -- complete with the effect of a scratchy 78-rpm record under the > opening vocal for effect -- erases time and space considerations and > instead iterates the song as a finely crafted work that situates the listener in > a place of ease and empathy. But these three cuts offer just a glimpse > through > the window of the completely contemporary setting of "I'm Not Sure," > with its smoky, sultry flamenco-styled guitar, string quartet, solo cello, > mandolin, and shadowy hand percussion negotiating the terrain between > the blues, fado, and sultry bossa nova. Likewise, "No One Needs to Know," > where Werner is accompanied only by her guitar and Eugene Friesen's cello, is > a torch ballad whispered in the stillness of a love furtively begun and > acceded to. In its secret lies its possibility. The finger-popping > standup bass and jazzed-up "doo wee" choruses in "Philanthropy," with Dave > Mattacks' hand percussion, invert the entire Tin Pan Alley instrumental dictum by > stripping everything to the barest notion of song itself -- and what a > song. > This 13-song set closes with that same 78 lisping in the background as > Werner's voice comes across the void singing a husky, brazen love song > that offers up her shortcomings as possibilities for gaining the other's > devotion; yet they are always in the realm of "maybe if I did," not "if > I do." She's accepting her protagonist for who she is, and it's enough for > the truth of the song; whatever the desired other wants is immaterial. The > piano may not quite assent to her vocal in its wistful shapes and dulcet tonal > wishes, but the singer's merely nodding to it in the corner of an empty > room, singing and playing into the night, out of that same office on Tin > Pan Alley. The cycle is complete, the tunes have been written, and it's time > to go home. > > This is a brilliantly constructed, soulful, and cleverly tender effort > by a songwriter and musician who is in such complete command of her gifts > that it's almost scary. In a sense it's fair to say that listeners should > forget everything they know of Susan Werner and encounter her now, in the fully > present articulation of her considerable gifts.-- Thom Jurek > > HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org > Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs > http://worldcafecds.com HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V8 #47 ****************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- This has been a posting from the Susan Werner believers-digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers-digest" in the body of the message