From: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org (lucy-list-digest) To: lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: lucy-list-digest V1 #173 Reply-To: lucy-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk lucy-list-digest Sunday, September 5 1999 Volume 01 : Number 173 In this issue: [lucy-list] Remembering Nicolette [lucy-list] Speaking of Angels [lucy-list] Ten Year Review [lucy-list] Falling Star (Karla Bonoff) [lucy-list] Album? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 08:14:54 EDT From: RockinRonD@aol.com Subject: [lucy-list] Remembering Nicolette In a message dated 9/4/99 12:17:24 AM Pacific Daylight Time, sharong writes: << dedication was to nicolette larson who died of cancer help me here, ovarian, breast..?>> Actually, the true cause of Nicolette's death was a cerebral edema. She had gone into the hospital for serious liver failure and her brain swelled from massive accumulation of fluid. Nicolette left us not all that long ago--she died on December 17, 1997 not quite two years ago. She was only 45 and left a daughter she had with her husband, drummer Russ Kunkel, named Elsie May. I miss her magical voice. Ron ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 08:19:43 EDT From: RockinRonD@aol.com Subject: [lucy-list] Speaking of Angels In a message dated 9/4/99 12:17:24 AM Pacific Daylight Time, owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org writes: <> Angels Rejoiced was also a classic Nicolette Larson tune and is on the "Nicolette" LP, which she sang with Herb Pedersen Ron ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 09:02:47 EDT From: RockinRonD@aol.com Subject: [lucy-list] Ten Year Review A few of the people on this list ready my review of Ten Year Night in the latest issue of MusicMattersReview, which also features my cover profile of the good doctor. I've had some request by those who don't get MMR, so I thought I would post my review of the record here. Hope Rick and Lucy don't mind. It may seem old now, but enjoy it anyway. Lucy Kaplansky: Ten Year Night Red House Records 1999 by Ralph DiGennaro "I worked hard on these songs," Lucy Kaplansky says about the tunes on her third and newest record, "Ten Year Night" on Red House Records. It shows. This is by far Kaplansky's best work, and not simply because all the songs were self-penned (co-authored with husband Rick Litvin), save for a Steve Earle cover, "Somewhere Out There," which actually sounds like the Chicago-born songstress might have written it, so well does it blend with the rest of the album. Apart from providing us with more original work than on either "The Tide" or "Flesh and Bone," her first two records consecutively, the writing is inspired, the music is even more hook-laden than anything before it and the entire album brings Kaplansky's amazing voice front and center. For the first time, this highly talented singer/songwriter is the heart and soul of the record. "This record is a reflection of who I am musically," Kaplansky told me. "On all my other records I was just the singer." A case could be made that Kaplansky turned out the best record of her life while in the midst of a sideline sojourn into new musical territory as part of Cry Cry Cry, and that in hanging around with Richard Shindell and Dar Williams, two of folk music's most profound and talented songwriters, so much creativity and inspiration must have rubbed off. True enough, many of the songs on Ten Year Night tread the familiar autobiographical terrain Shindell and Williams often eloquently sashay through. Songs such as the title cut "Ten Year Night" (written for her husband), "For Once In Your Life" (written in tribute to her mother) and "Turn The Lights Back On" (a musical diatribe leveled at a former therapist) and "End of the Day" (better not to hazard a guess as to who this poison dart is aimed) are clearly akin to journal entries put to music, with Kaplansky rummaging through the valise of her existence in order to put her life into some kind of perspective. By now it is common knowledge that she retired from music for a time to pursue a career in psychology, in which she earned a Ph.D. Fortunately for the world, Kaplansky came back to music, and this masterpiece of a record is clearly a defining moment in her evolving career. Though she hates being labeled a folk artist, Kaplansky is still considered as such, even though, not unlike her earlier work, this record is flavored generously with country, particularly the accomplished pedal steel guitar of ubiquitous session genius Larry Campbell. Adding to the country beat is Duke Levine's lively slide and lead electric guitar playing. "One Good Reason," with it's catchy chorus and staccato like gushes in the verses, is a potential triple A radio hit single if I've ever heard one, and a tune that could easily cross over into the pop mainstream. Ditto for "End of the Day." Perhaps the greatest treasures on this record are the ballads, which Kaplansky handles with consummate grace and emotion. It is not surprising that anyone with a pulse and a guitar seeks her out for harmony vocals on their own records. With John Gorka singing harmony, Kaplansky's voice is downright heartbreaking in "Promise Me," where her lyrics are equally inspired: "I'm counting the white lines, the measures of road time/They're broken in pieces like my heart today." On "Just You Tonight" one can almost smell the stale smoke and cheap beer in a dimly lit bar in the middle of nowhere, as Kaplansky's velvety smooth voice whispers a passionate ode to someone: "It's not the altitude that takes my breath away/And makes my body feel like the air's too thin/It's not the bourbon that you've been drinking/That burns like autumn leaves against my skin/It's just you tonight/And the music you heard in me somehow." "For Once In Your Life," a song dedicated to Kaplansky's mother, strikes a universal chord with anyone who has ever harbored regret about a family relationship. The tune's chorus pierces the soul when Kaplansky emotes: "I want to make it up to you somehow/Maybe there's something I have I could give you now/There's so many things you never had/Maybe it doesn't have to hurt so bad/For once in your life." Heart wrenching stuff, beautifully written and sung by one of the more unique voices in popular music today. There is still a large segment of the music-listening world that has yet to discover the remarkable talents of Lucy Kaplansky. "Ten Year Night" is their wake-up call. End ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 14:48:27 EDT From: OzWoman321@aol.com Subject: [lucy-list] Falling Star (Karla Bonoff) << i saw EL&L on the tonight show and hey did a cover of jackson brownes' for a dancer- which made me run out and fid this cd-their dedication was to nicolette larson who died of cancer help me here, ovarian, breast..? it was a touching tribute- >> Oh, sharon, that must have been gorgeous ("and in the end there is one dance you do alone...") - I cannot remember exactly what Nicolette died of (brain swelling or heart failure?) but I know it wasn't cancer (Laura Nyro's was ovarian, though...)... << Geez! That's a Ten Kleenex Night if ever I heard one! I'm almost glad I wasn't there... >> Ron, it truly was a Double-Digit Two-Fisted-Hanky Evening, even before that song and dedication - I hadn't seen Karla since she opened for James Taylor at Chastain Park in Atlanta in the late 70's, so it was such a treat to hear Home, Faces in the Wind, and Someone to Lay Down Beside Me once again, not to mention The Water is Wide (even though JT couldn't reprise his role on guitar and harmony vocals... :-) Susan ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 19:22:18 -0500 (CDT) From: Car41@webtv.net Subject: [lucy-list] Album? [Pardon me if y'all have already eplained this, but I get the digest and won't know 'til tomorrow morning] No doubt, many of you got this in your email box today: >Hey everyone! For folks in the Minneapolis >area, tickets go on sale this week for an album >release concert I'm doing at the Cedar Cultural >Center on October 9. For tickets and info you >can call Red House Records at 651-644-4161. >Take care! >Love, Lucy Album release? What album might this be, that is about to be released? New CryCryCry? New Red House compilation of some sort? New local Minnesota disc of some sort? Wondering, Richard Hill ------------------------------ End of lucy-list-digest V1 #173 ******************************* This has been a posting from the Lucy Kaplansky mail list digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe lucy-list-digest" in the body of the message