From: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org (jinglejangle-digest) To: jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Subject: jinglejangle-digest V1 #24 Reply-To: jinglejangle@smoe.org Sender: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jinglejangle-digest Wednesday, March 4 1998 Volume 01 : Number 024 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [MLL] Newsweek!! [Rachel ] [MLL] Seattle Sidewalk GNS review [Rachel ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 09:33:22 -0500 (EST) From: Rachel Subject: [MLL] Newsweek!! Wow...great review in Newsweek - go Mary Lou! I vote greatness too... :) Rachel Newsweek, March 9, 1998, p. 59 Mary Lou Lord is loaded with hipster credibility. On her major-label debut (after several independent singles and EPs), she covers songs by Freedy Johnston and Elizabeth Cotten, drops a reference to '60s session bassist Carol Kaye and boasts guest guitarists like Roger McGuinn and Nels Cline--go ahead, *you* look them up. But don't let her smarts fool you. Lord's songs are unabashedly accessible: she's got a habit for jangly pop hooks and a streak of sadness eight miles wide. "I'll wire you some love today/There's so much more I want to say," she sings in "Western Union Desperate." Like a lot of songwriters, she's caught between obscurity and greatness. We vote greatness. -- Karen Schoemer ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 15:27:25 -0500 (EST) From: Rachel Subject: [MLL] Seattle Sidewalk GNS review Review from Seattle.Sidewalk at http://seattle.sidewalk.com/link/63492 Also, I've been keeping track of all the reviews I can find, and they're accessible at http://pages.nyu.edu/~rkb200/reviews.html if you want to see 'em later. rachel Mary Lou Lord: 'Got No Shadow' By Jon Wiederhorn, Music Central Online Everyone knew Mary Lou Lord once dated Kurt Cobain and played in Boston subways, but until recently few could actually hum a bar of her music. This is partially because most of her songs were covers, but also because her originals were more memorable for their name-dropping than their melodic content. For a while, Lord appeared to be all indie style and no substance, but on "Got No Shadow," the Red Line busker proves herself as more than a product of the American alternative hype machine. Filled with poignant acoustic songs about one-night stands, disconnected relationships and existential woes, the album serves as a toe-tapping "Dear Abby" column for the lovelorn and woebegone. And for those too cool to fall in love, Lord still offers plenty of lyrical references to artsy folks like Rimbaud, Verlaine and Dinosaur Jr. What really makes "Got No Shadow" shine, though, is Lord's fragile, resonant voice and crisp, simple songwriting. To be fair, her musical partner and longtime hero Nick Saloman (of the Bevis Frond) deserves some of the acclaim, but before you go discrediting Lord as an opportunist, remember that some of the best performers of the past century played material written by others. Think of Lord as analogous to the Little Engine That Could. They both started out on train platforms, and they both rose above the odds to deliver the goods. ------------------------------ End of jinglejangle-digest V1 #24 *********************************