From: owner-ecto-digest To: ecto-digest@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto-digest V2 #59 Reply-To: ecto@nsmx.rutgers.edu Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Thursday, 23 March 1995 Volume 02 : Number 059 The Ecto digest is now being generated automatically. Please send problems and questions to: ecto-owner@nsmx.rutgers.edu. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: larry@hal.com (Larry Hernandez) Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 15:23:34 -0800 (PST) Subject: Re: IM: Hello all/postcard for single rcvd Hi Keith, I share your outrageous anger at A&M (or whomever is responsible) for this poorly executed release of the Innocence Mission (IM)'s new album. At least I've heard 2 cuts from the album now, and I am not at all disappointed in the new songs. Karen's singing still takes multiple listens to understand it, and even then it's puzzling sometimes, which is fine with me ;)... I received a postcard from, I'm guessing, the IM's address list that you had once forwarded to Lancaster, Pa. (p.o. box 837, 17608, by the way).. It has the single's picture on the front (cutting off the woman with the infant and half of the first boy as on the cd booklet-who are these people, anyway?), and announces the single as having been "in stores February 14" and the new album "in stores June 6th". The Lancaster address is also given as to where to send $5 (U.S.; I'm assuming this includes U.S. postage)... Ol' A&M is starting to rival MCA as the world's worst major label. For those who don't know, the single is called "Bright as Yellow." Buy it today! Larry (larry@hal.com) ------------------------------ From: phanes@community.net (Edward Ernest Kadel III) Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 15:27:33 -0800 Subject: Re: Portishead 'Lo there, yourself. thanx fo' the welcome. I've been mainly a lurker for the past month, but I'm starting ta perk up now! Talk ta thou's later... >Hey, I just wanted to say hi, & welcome to Ecto! > >Vickie Xenophanes! "Sing while you may!" >:-) -- Edward Qa-Spel "Set me free, Remotivate me!" >:-( -- Martin L. Gore Edward (Ward ) Ernest Kadel III phanes@community.net ------------------------------ From: phanes@community.net (Edward Ernest Kadel III) Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 15:32:03 -0800 Subject: Re: More Portishead stuff 'Lo there, all! I accidently sent this to Martin, so apologies to you, me ecto-pal (I hope :-) ). Anyway, here's the exact address for the Portishead WWW page: http://www.godiscs.co.uk/godiscs/porthead.html >They have a WWW page with some very interesting stuff on it, including a >multimedia presentation which was projected onto the MIF (Intelligence) >building on Valentine's Day! Talk ta thou's later... Xenophanes! "Sing while you may!" >:-) -- Edward Qa-Spel "Set me free, Remotivate me!" >:-( -- Martin L. Gore Edward (Ward ) Ernest Kadel III phanes@community.net ------------------------------ From: RedGtrGirl@aol.com Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 18:49:02 -0500 Subject: Greetings Ectophiles After several failed attempts to get on this list (I was addressing my request incorrectly) I finally made it. I've been a big fan of Happy's since last Spring when I heard "Feed The Fire" on a public radio station in Columbus, Ohio (USA). Before then, I had never heard of her (what a crime!) Needless to say I ran out and started to buy her CD's! I also dashed off a letter to Sharon at the fanzine, glowing about my new found musical muse! (I have been a subscriber to Rhodeways since this past Winter) Anyway, my name is Amy, and I currently live in Chicago, Illinois (USA). I used to post to the HR bulletin board on GEnie services with the nickname "Del irium" so some of you might remember me from there - although I wasn't there very often. Happy was one of my inspirations to pick up the guitar - where before I only played keyboards, and not very well ; ) I was looking for a new direction in my songwriting and seemed to find my way of describing my musical ideas to the musicians I work with. So thanks, Happy! She is the first successful (I think she is!) female singer/songwriter whose favourite bands are also my favourite bands ! Anyway, let's see, what can I offer the list today... Artists other than HR that are in heavy rotation on my CD player (and besides Tori Amos - who I adore - but I'm sure many of you out there are fans of her as well.) Kristen Hersh - "Hips and Makers". Kristin is probably known for her work with Throwing Muses (and being the step-sister of Tanya Donnelly of Belly), but this solo album is a wonderful, acoustic collection of song prose that makes for rainy afternoon, lazing on the couch with the cats music. Jane Sibbery - "When I Was A Boy" Sinead O'Connor meets kd lang meets Kate Bush. Earthy lush rhythmic backgrounds for a haunting voice and deep lyrics (sounds like I'm describing Happy's music as well!). I stumbled upon this album by chance last year. It reminds me of hot Summer nights with a full moon. Other discs I've been playing are Patrick Moraz "Windows of Time", and an older disc by now defunct California band Jellyfish called "Spilt Milk". Some other time I will get into my infatuation with the Jellyfish, they were a truly brilliant band. But I digress..... Rejoice - Spring is here! "I've lived to see my fondest dreams realized of living under the sights and sounds of the gifted who gave so much to me.." Happy Rhodes Peace all... guitar girl ------------------------------ From: Robert Lovejoy Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 22:51:05 -0500 Subject: Greetings Ectophiles On Wed, 22 Mar 1995 RedGtrGirl@aol.com said: > I used to post to the HR bulletin board on GEnie services with the nickname "Del >irium" so some of you might remember me from there - although I wasn't there >very often. Hi, Rlovejoy1 here! Not many people at all left on Genie these days; I think Meth is still there as well as myself. Welcome to ecto! I'm sure you'll see a lot more info here! Best wishes, Robert Lovejoy ------------------------------ From: jwaite@popmail.ucsd.edu (Jerene Waite) Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 20:39:22 -0800 Subject: Show me the way I have just recently become a Happy person by means of Building the Colossus. Her melodies are with me night and day. (Funny how I can go to sleep with one song in my mind and wake up with another. Is this like audio-dreaming?) What I would like to know is--What next? Which recording(s) would you recommend as my very next (limited budget) purchase? Perhaps you might just order them in preferred sequence. (It's been Glory absolutely all day today. I wonder if the song set my Happy mood, or if my Happy mood chose the song.) Jerene ------------------------------ From: Hail Ants Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 00:20:04 -0500 (EST) Subject: Sarah in DC... Hi everyone, Jenn and I just got back from seeing Sarah in DC. It was another fantastic performance. She truly is one of, if not THE, best show on tour today. I'm still in a bit of a daze, as I usually am after seeing a goddess. :) Jeff, Mike Matthews and Neal were also in attendence, and I'm sure they've got comments about the show as well... Jenn and I did talk to Cathy from Nettwerk for a little while before the show. She said that she knew of Happy, but had never heard her music. Someone in the office ordered BTC, but it didn't arrive before they started this leg of the tour. I think an ectophile needs to get Cathy a Happy CD. :) She did say that from what she's heard, she'd like it and she'd be sure to play it for Sarah. If anyone does give her a CD, tell her John, Jenn and Jeff sent you. :) She's a really nice person. :) Oh, and Paula Cole was incredible too. We're adding her name to the CD's to buy list... :) John ------------------------------ From: FoghornJ@aol.com Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 00:30:47 -0500 Subject: male artists Enter lurker... Hello all, I have been following ecto (or trying to) for about 6 months now, looking for Happy News and leads to similarly intriguing new music, which I have found aplenty here. It's also interesting to me when people write of music of the past decade (or so). I see it is not uncommon for folks (like me) who bought 70's and 80's so-called "progressive rock" to find themselves a Happy Rhodes devotee. Anyway (the first words are always the most difficult) the recent male artist thread convinced me to throw a couple of names into the mix and see what happens. Here are a few of my favorites from the more or less distant past (ignoring, of course, the blatantly familiar mainstreamers like Yes and Gentle Giant ;) Peter Hammill Fish Gryphon Crack the Sky Brian Protheroe ... As I wrote the above I was listening to PH's "Roaring Forties". The disc has since changed... to Kirsty's "Galore" collection. That's my signal... enough of this male bonding crap. Before I go please indulge me while I shamelessly plug WPKN 100% Listener Supported radio in Bridgeport, Brass City records in Waterbury, and Gerosa Records in Brookfield, without whose help none of this would have been necessary. (All cities in CT) Toodles, Fog ------------------------------ From: jeffy@wam.umd.edu Date: Thu, 23 Mar 95 00:31:54 EST Subject: sarah in dc Ahhhh. Just back from seeing the third (and final) US leg of Sarah McLachlan's FTE tour. Wow. I must admit that the show disappointed me in a few ways, and I don't think it was quite as strong as either of the last two. I'd have to say that of the three shows I saw, the second leg was the best. Still, as others have commented, the light show for this leg is fabulous -- Pink Floyd, eat your hearts out. ;-) And a live Sarah McLachlan show is better than, well, gee, better than virtually anything. Let's see: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (and now in no particular order...) Plenty Wait Ice Fall From Grace Drawn to the Rhythm The Path of Thorns (Terms) Lost Back Door Man Elsewhere Good Enough Fear Hold On Encore 1 Into the Fire Possession Encore 2 Black Mary Final Encore Ice Cream (I think that's everything). Comments: I was shocked that she didn't play anything from _Touch_. Perhaps my favorite Sarah song is "Out of the Shadows" and I was crushed to not even hear part of it (many of you (and especially Mike) will remember my rants about Sarah segueing out of OftS before the end). A number of folks have commented on the ommission of "Home" (one of the songs Sarah sometimes segues into from OotS...), and I missed that as well. Still, despite my disappointment about "Out of the Shadows," I was perhaps more surprised not to hear "Vox" or "Steaming." I much prefer the older, rather stark rendition of "Ice." Previously it was performed with just Ash and Dave, with Dave playing a hooter. This time, the hooter melody was replaced with a vaguely Spanish-sounding acoustic guitar played by Luc. I think that the full-band treatment took away some of its somberness. "Hold On" rocked, of course. Ahhhh. Hmmm. I'm trying to remember some of the other arrangements that were changed this time around, and my mind's going blank on me. I remember that there was one other song whose arrangement I preferred in the last two shows I saw. Sarah in pigtails is a wonderful sight. Sarah was *very* chatty tonight, more so than I've seen her. A lot of the stories about the songs I'd heard all or parts of before, but there were a lot more stories this time. She of course told the one about "Plenty" in which she gives her "I love pensises" bit, but she seemed to goof that story a bit -- a few minutes later she made a comment about the guy she was in love with not being able to "keep it up" -- referring to his sensitive facade, but the double entendre was pretty obvious. The crowd burst out laughing, and she seemed to have a delayed reaction as if she wasn't sure what she'd said that was so funny. At which point Kershaw riffed a bit on his keyboard and things were kind of out of control for a minute or two. Has she used the "keep it up" line elsewhere, or was it truly an accident? Got to meet Cathy from Nettwerk. She was very friendly, and seemed to get a kick out of it when I walked up to Jon and Jenn, who were speaking to her, and said hi to the ectophiles and then "And you must be Cathy!" There's something fun about being net.famous. ;-) We were surprised to find out that she has yet to hear Happy, though she's very anxious to. Anybody wanna volunteer to take her an album when they go see a Sarah show? Apparently somebody at Nettwerk had ordered BtC, but it didn't come in before Cathy left for the tour. Paula Cole's opening set was fabulous. She played "Happy Home," "I Am So Ordinary," "Bethlehem," "Dear Gertrude," Hitler's Brothers," and I think maybe one other from _Harbinger_, as well as two new songs and a cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene," which was just *way* too cool. It made me think of the Resident's _The King and Eye_, on which (or so they claim) they take Elvis songs and bring out the true emotions behind the songs (and it's often rather evil sounding). She had two musicians with her, Gerry Leonard (acoustic guitar, synth pedals of some sort, and e-bow(!)) and Jay Bellerose on drums. It's amazing what a mass of noise 3 musicians can make. And now I'm tired and must sleep. CATCH THIS SHOW IF YOU CAN! Jeff |Jeffrey C. Burka | "When I look in the mirror, I see a little clearer/ | | | I am what I am and you are you too./ Do you like | |jeffy@wam.umd.edu | what you see? Do you like yourself?" --N. Cherry | ------------------------------ From: fleur@iglou.com (Joanna Phillips) Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 03:52:12 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: Greetings Ectophiles > On Wed, 22 Mar 1995 RedGtrGirl@aol.com said: > > > > I used to post to the HR bulletin board on GEnie services with the > nickname "Del > >irium" so some of you might remember me from there - although I wasn't > there > >very often. > > Hi, Rlovejoy1 here! Not many people at all left on Genie these days; I > think Meth is still there as well as myself. Welcome to ecto! (snip) > Robert Lovejoy Hi, Fleur here! I just searched out the Happy Rhodes topic tonight and downloaded 300+ messages! Yay! That oughtta keep me off the streets and out of the bars ;D Thanks for mentioning it! - -jo- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joanna M. Phillips | "...And into midnight's tapestry she fades ragged fleur@iglou.com | and wild/Hunting down her ancestry in the costume fleur@genie.geis.com | of a Persian child." -- Joan Baez ------------------------------ From: veronica sawyer Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 04:53:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: a momentary lapse into reason (long & Gaimanish) hi Everyone... this isn't going to be much fun at all but i do need to explain what i was trying to say about Neil Gaiman... coherently if possible. :) > so? i can do that. i can do that if i need to. well i'll be, you know, and do the easy stuff first... On Sun, 19 Mar 1995, THE OLIVE-LOAF VIGILANTE wrote: > As Neil pointed out, Moev aren't truly ectophilic, but if you're into the > whole late-80's technoindustrial thing, then you'll probably enjoy their i'll probably have the chance to hear them this weekend... so i'll see. i like the techno- end of the techno-dustrial spectrum. the more typically industrial music i usually pass by. > Sarah has recently appeared on five tracks from the neo-country band Blue > Rodeo's last album _Five Days In July_, on either piano or vocals or both. maybe she'll turn up on a Cowboy Junkies or Mazzy Star album? then again... not too sure how that'd sound. > >and of late i had a lovely conversation with John Ney Reiber about things > > The Books of Magic is the singlemost brilliant new comics title to hit the > stands since The Sandman, IMNSHO. Follow it religiously. :> is it ok if i'm TPB-religious? i already have a religion, and it forbids me from eating hot dog buns, not to mention chasing back issues. ;) > :) Try old-ways-request@tomservo.edaal.ingr.com ... ok, thank you! although i think a few hundred people must've played the "operator, operator" game on the address i tried... it wasn't anything close to this one! and somewhere around here it gets tougher... > >so *is* Neil Gaiman over the faerie-mound, erm, hill? well from my rather > >imited experience, mostly Sandman, i feel like "and i'm always scared he's > >laughing at me. behind his face." and even in the brief moments when i met > >him (a distinct pleasure and definite honor) that impression came through. no > >i haven't read all of Shakespeare and all the world's mythologies but that > >doesn't mean i like being talked down to. a difficult but clever reference > >left unexplained is a treasure to be uncovered another day; the same, > >explained, is tantamount to condescension... and Sandman gives me that > >feeling all too often. > > I'm not too sure what you're getting at here... are you saying that you feel > that Neil Gaiman is being condescending in the way that he introduces bits of > world mythology and other works into his stories? If so, then he certainly > does *not* mean it that way. He's trying to open his reader's minds to new > ideas and introduce them to stories they may otherwise not have heard of -- > I know he's expanded my knowledge of non-Western mythology and my interest > in same quite a bit. > > If that's not what you meant, could you translate? Thanks. :) well first i need to say that i *don't* mind the content. i feel very much like you do wrt mythology and other topics, faeries for instance. i don't mind something just cause i don't know it... i'm not that silly. :) it's the *way* some things... some little things, are done, that make me feel laughed at. now that's not so bad, it feels like good-natured laughter, and i'm Discordian enough to understand the inevitability and propriety of that (and other) laughter. so it's not horrid or anything, but it is there, if only for me. it's hard (not to mention scary) for me to try and explain this. the feeling i have is subtle, and i only get it from the past year or two or so of Sandman, but it is persistent, and that's why Ray's comments struck a note. (parenthetically, i don't feel nearly as strongly about it as Ray seems to, and i certainly don't know nearly as much of Neil's work as Ray does.) *sigh*. well "no redemption without blood" and no explanation without examples. so lately the Puck refrained from asking the Corinthian whether he drew his name from the place, the columns, the mode of behaviour, the leather, et al. now this... hm. i was somehow disappointed that he enumerated (eliterated?) all the various meanings of "corinthian". i could only think of a friend of mine, who writes for a magazine, both of whom shall remain nameless. the magazine aims for an 8th grade reading level, and my friend's editor will send articles back saying, "ok, good, except dumb it down!". (conversely, i'd not thought of Thessaly as "Thessalian" until Dream so addressed her... but once he did, "Thessalonians" was pretty clear to me. having it explained would have felt... disappointing.) and right about now... is where i want to crawl into a hole, 'cause this probably *sounds* really bad, but i don't mean it at all that way. this is like people saying that the last leg of Sarah's tour is a little less than perfect. recent Sandman just seems a little less than perfect... but only a little. this is so COMplicated. and i know that i'm damaged goods, and that most people will read the same things i'm reading and never feel what i'm feeling. and i know that: "my dreams are moving fast my tears are not a lie" -- Liz Frazier but i also know the difference between what i feel from reading something and what the author *intended* that i feel, "intent and outcome are rarely...". and i could pick examples, one by one, for people to refute, one by one, but that's the wrong language, it misses the point. i don't think that in so doing i could get anyone to feel as i do (i wouldn't *want* to either! why spoil it?), and i know that noone could talk me out of how i feel. On Sun, 19 Mar 1995, Laurel Krahn wrote: > He just seemed like a terribly intelligent, nice man. With good > taste in t-shirts. of those things there can be no doubt! :) > ... > A few folks I know think Neil a bit snobbish. My perception was that > they caught him at a particularly busy distracted moment. well i could barely get the frog from my throat to get my foot *into* my mouth, but such is life. once i did... snobbish? no. not at all. and i *know* he was very tired at the time. i compared a bit of "Some Girls" to a bit of Sandman, and he understood... he seemed, weary, perhaps, in a way beyond tiredness. but this is too tangential, even for me... i'll talk about it emailly though, if you like. really my feelings are based on his work, not my momentary nervous meeting. > [material reordered] > But Neil has a way of being terribly nice, no matter how deep you put > your foot into your mouth. And it always seems he's glad to turn you > onto new literature and such things. Or to hear about such stuff from > folks. i did get, amazingly, to show Neil something he hadn't seen - Dave McKean's artwork for the Front Line Assembly single "Millenium". and as Anthony Horan knows, another curious circle closes there... i'm not sure if this has helped or hurt... veronica - --- "no and no and no and no i can't take this!" - siouxsie sioux ------------------------------ From: klaus@inphobos.wupper.de Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 23:31:16 CET-1 Subject: Re: some news Chad asked about Intersection: > That convention sounds like great fun! Any news on guest speakers or any > one? I'd like to know, even though I'm incapable of attending. Guests of Honour will be Samual R. Delany & Gerry Anderson, Les Edwards (artist) & Vince Clarke (fan). Toast Mr & Mrs will be Peter Morwood & Diane Duane. If you have WWW access you could check out http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk:80/intersection and for info about Morwood/Duane there are their own "The Owl Spring Partnership" pages (including pictures of their cats) at http://Penny.ibmPCUG.CO.UK:80/~owls/ > No need to stop you there, Klaus. As a former (and recovering) master > mage, I can say that the thrill of MtG usually dies after somewhere > around seven months. Well, we started very slowly and still only find the time to do 3 to 5 games a week, so I'm confident we'll manage to hang on for some years. Cheers, Klaus _____ Klaus "cosmic vagabond" Kluge take a trip on a rocket ship, baby klaus@inphobos.wupper.de the sea is the sky - Tori Amos ------------------------------ From: "Robert P. Keefer" Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 11:41:37 -0500 (EST) Subject: Dionne Farris in the Philly Inquirer (147 lines) \Philadelphia Inquirer, Monday, March 20, 1995, D1,D6.\ [Headline;] Sweetest gig of all [Sub-Headline] Singer Dionne Farris' development will be arrested no longer: She has left the hot hip-hop band and found her own voice. She solos tonight at the Theater of Living Arts. [Sub-Headline, D6] Singer Dionne Farris goes confidently solo. [Picture D1: Farris in denim shirt, print pants, legs hanging over arm of a red leather chair, smiling, looking right at camera; Caption:] Dionne Farris' debut album is "Wild Seed -- Wild Flower," and "I didn't have to compromise myself at all." By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Staff Writer. "September 22, 1992." The date on which Dionne Farris made the biggest decision of her life springs forth. On the phone from Toronto, she's sounding a little groggy the morning after a late show on her first solo concert tour, which brings her to the Theater of Living Arts here tonight. And the dazzling voice that swoops and soars all over, under and around the funk, rock and R & B tunes on her debut album, _Wild Seed -- Wild Flower__ (Columbia) and her red-hot slide-guitar-fired hit single, "I Know," is sounding scratchy and not so agile. Farris apologizes; it's just that she's never sung so much before, and her throat's a bit worse for the wear. But ask when -- and why -- she walked away from a sweet gig with Arrested Development, then the hottest band in all of hip-hop, and Farris finds her voice. "It was right before a show at the Fox theater in Atlanta during the En Vogue tour," she remembers, oh-so-clearly. "I was having it out with Speech and Headliner [A.D.'s leaders] backstage just before we were going to go on. They couldn't believe that I was actually going to leave. It shocked everybody." At the time, A.D. was riding high. The positive-vibration alternative rap group's breakthrough hit, "Tennessee," was climbing the upper reaches of the pop charts, and Farris' vocal embellishments ("Take me to another place, take me to another time...") were a huge part of the song's success. But Farris was never a huge part of Arrested Development, and that was the problem. She wasn't a charter member: Rather, the now-26-year-old New Jersey native and Atlanta resident was part of A.D.'s "extended family," and wasn't privy to creative decision. "I understood that is was their thing, and they were in the catbird seat," Farris says of Speech and Headliner. "But they were not our elders or mentors. I just needed to grow. So it was just like, 'I have to go now,' in order to ensure that I stay true to myself." What Farris found, however, was that staying true to yourself is not so easy when you're a young black woman and you're not interested in being molded as urban radio's next Toni Braxton or Whitney Houston, or in simply churning out Arrested Development Part 2. "People would ask me what kind of music I wanted to do, and I would tell them, 'Some rock, some funk.' And they'd say, 'Mmmm, that's really interesting. Why don't you play it safe this time, and we can go for that with your second album?' Or I'd say, 'I like guitar and piano more than keyboards, and I want there to e a strong live element to the music,' and they'd be like 'Well, that's going to be hard.'" Farris, however, is too strong-willed to be bullied. She was born in Plainfield, N.J., and reared in Bordentown by her schoolteacher mother (who lives in Willingboro now). She started out singing in church and school choirs, and was the first black to play the title role in the musical _Annie_ at the mostly white Bordentown Regional High School. "I was always an individual, always did things off the cuff. I was kind of a loner," she says. Attending racially intergrated schools, she listened to rock and R & B, and in choir she sang classical and choral music as well as Broadway show tunes. Growing up, she was a self-described Diana Ross fanatic. When she was 8, an uncle took her to New York to see her heroine perform; during "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand," the star took her up on stage and kissed her. "I was so mad at my aunt for wiping that lipstick off my cheek," she says. "I never wanted to wash my face again." Farris says her mother could have been a singer if her talent had been encouraged, and her father, who lives in Atlanta, sings and plays the piano, guitar and drums. "I always knew I wanted to be a singer," she says. "It's just always been easy for me." After high school, Farris studied photography at Mercer County College, but "my head wasn't there," so in 1989 she moved to Atlanta at her father's urging, with her boyfriend, Rasa Don, soon to become the drummer in A.D. Farris began working with producer Jermaine Dupri (the Svengali behind Kriss Kross), and landed songwriting credits on both TLC's and Immature's debut albums. Before joining A.D. in 1991, Farris sang in a girl group called Onyx. "It was trying to be En Vogue slash the '90's LaBelle, but it was very corny. I had dreads back then, and they wanted all four of us to wear dresses. So I would wear Army boots under my dresses. It was not my thing." After splitting from A.D., and breaking up with Rasa Don shortly thereafter -- she's currently unattached -- Farris did some soul searching. "I had a lot of time all alone in the house to sit and listen and sit and think. It was a definite learning process: I learned what was most important to me, and that was to be true to myself." So when Columbia signed her up for _Wild Seed -- Wild Flower_, which pictures Farris on the cover in jeans and a work shirt, just sitting and thinking, Farris was determined to go her own way and produce the album herself. The results owe more to Sly & the Family Stone than to Janet Jackson, and though A.D.'s upbeat humanism is everywhere, Farris' powerful resolve and uncompromised musical vision are her own. The fierce "Don't Ever Touch Me (Again)" deals with sexual abuse. "11th Hour" muses about moving on. The naive philosophical lyrics of "Reality" float above a Caribbean-accented groove. And the gorgeous, sparsely accompanied version of the Beatles "Blackbird" provided Farris with what she calls "my anthem." ("Take these broken wings and learn to fly," she sings. "All your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise.") Now that "I Know," with it's Bonnie Raitt-like sexy guitar hooks, is starting to get serious radio and MTV play, Farris says life on the road is starting to get a bit crazy. "This is a new thing in my life, but being with A.D. helped me learn to take all the chaos with a grain of salt. It's like, I don't need people calling me Miss Farris. Miss Farris is my mom. I'm Dionne... "People start tripping out on you. I'm not curing cancer, and this is not brain surgery. I'm just a singer. It's something special, but you have to keep it in perspective." "I am extremely proud of myself that this record is done, and that I didn't have to compromise myself at all," Farris says. "This record doesn't sound the way it does because I'm black or because I'm a woman or because I used to be in Arrested Development. It sounds the way it does because it's me." [Box] If You Go Time: Tonight, 8 o'clock Price: $8.50 Place: Theater of Living Arts, 334 South St. [Philadelphia] Phone: 215-922-1011 ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V2 #59 ************************* ======================================================================== Please send any questions or comments about the list to ecto-owner@nsmx.rutgers.edu