From: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org (navy-soup-digest) To: navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Subject: navy-soup-digest V1 #41 Reply-To: navy-soup@smoe.org Sender: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk navy-soup-digest Friday, December 11 1998 Volume 01 : Number 041 In This Digest: ----------------- Women & Songs 2 [Paul Schreiber ] Melanie, Sarah, Cowboy Junkies @ Phoenix [Paul Schreiber ] Re: Sarah Slean in Toronto Star [Paul Schreiber Subject: Women & Songs 2 [fumbers: Sarah is on with Unchained Melody; EDAs: Jewel is on with WWSYS (again)] [ note to US readers: hee hee hee :) :) ] I picked up Women & Songs 2 today. It's floating at $17 everywhere, but only $15 at HMV; they also have a two-CD W&S/W&S2 set for $30, which I picked up. I have used up my ten stamps on my HMV club card, and only paid $5. :-) Anyway, this is a really good CD. None of this cheesy Spice Girls/N Sync/BSB/Hanson-bubblegum-wannabe crap. This is a solid record, as in rock solid. You've got Chantal Kreviazuk leading off, waking you up and knocking you off your ass with "Surrounded." Paula Cole follows Chantal with the oh-so-catchy "I Don't Want To Wait" (love that clapping). Sheryl Crow has a great rendition of "Strong Enough," which sounds rather nice, with a bit of an acoustic bent to it. Natalie Imbruglia's "Wishing I Was There" makes me happy to know Left of the Middle is on its way to me. I could go on, but suffice to say, this would be a really nice present for your favourite music fan. Natalie Merchant looks gorgeous on the cover. :-) Oh yeah, I almost forgot. :) Track nineteen is none other than Sarah Slean, with an absolutely stunning version I know. Wow, those strings...about three minutes in. Just blew me away. Way to go, Sarah. Paul shad 96c / 3A CS / mac activist / eda / fumbler fan of / jewel / sophie b. hawkins / sarah slean / steve poltz / / x-files / buffy / dawson's creek / habs / bills / 49ers / t h i n k d i f f e r e n t. "I may be wrong, but I'm never in doubt." -- Marshall McLuhan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 10:04:40 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Schreiber Subject: Melanie, Sarah, Cowboy Junkies @ Phoenix From today's eye mag: "No Place Like Home," a benfit for YWCA shelters featuring the Cowboy Junkies, Sarah Slean (who also plays the Reverb Wednesday) and Melanie Doane, is Tuesday (Dec. 15) at the Phoenix. Paul shad 96c / 3A CS / mac activist / eda / fumbler fan of / jewel / sophie b. hawkins / sarah slean / steve poltz / / x-files / buffy / dawson's creek / habs / bills / 49ers / t h i n k d i f f e r e n t. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 10:14:30 -0500 From: "Frank Yang" Subject: Sarah Slean in Toronto Star There's an article in today's Toronto Star (Club Crawl in What's On) about Sarah, with some details about her record deal with Atlantic Records and WEA. Brief, but interesting. - -- Frank Yang Imperial Tobacco Ltd. "The only danger is if they send us to that terrible planet of the apes... wait a minute... Statue of Liberty... That was our planet! You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!" In my CD player: Catatonia - International Velvet ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 10:52:46 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Schreiber Subject: Re: Sarah Slean in Toronto Star > There's an article in today's Toronto Star (Club Crawl in What's On) > about Sarah, with some details about her record deal with Atlantic > Records and WEA. Brief, but interesting. Hi Frank! :) They don't see fit to mention her in conjunction with the YWCA benefit: - --- COWBOY JUNKIES (The Phoenix, 410 Sherbourne St.): Melanie Doane joins the Junkies in a benefit concert for YWCA shelters, Tues., doors 8 p.m. ($23 at 870-8000 or 323-1251). - --- They, do mention her and Chris Briscoe are at the Reverb on Tuesday. (Eye ignored Chris for some reason.) I can't seem to find the article Frank mentioned at thestar.com though. Guess I'll have to check the dead-tree edition. later, Paul shad 96c / 3A CS / mac activist / eda / fumbler fan of / jewel / sophie b. hawkins / sarah slean / steve poltz / / x-files / buffy / dawson's creek / habs / bills / 49ers / t h i n k d i f f e r e n t. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 22:00:03 -0500 From: Paul Schreiber Subject: Toronto Star article Sarah Sean sings words that matter Musician a refreshing change form glut of lovelorn songwriters Club Notes -- Ben Rayner Here's a brief study in contrasts for you. Building a picture from her music alone, one almost expects Sarah Slean to be a melancholy, bookish young woman with a "Catcher In The Rye"-esque desire to interrogate life, the universe and everything. She'd have world-weary, lovelorn, Sylvia Plath anthologies, carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders -- you know the type. Instead, the diminutive, beaming figure sitting across a coffee-shop table the particular afternoon is every inch the giddy 21-year-old -- albeit a giddy 21-year-old with a ferocious gift for piano and voice and nascent songwriting chops that already stand up alongside (and in a few cases, tower over) her companions on the new "Women And Song 2" [sic] compilation. "I'm just like 'Aaah! I'm not worthy,'" says Slean, who re-recorded the sombre-yet-pretty cut "I Know" for inclusion on the album. (It was originally on her debut EP, "Universe," released earlier this year.) True, a complicated development deal with Atlantic Records in the States and, consequently, Warner Music Canada helped the Pickering native score prime placement alongside the likes of Canada's _other_ Sarah (McLachlan), Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Merchant and Tracy Chapman. But Slean's classically bred melodies and insightful, probing lyrics are far more appealing than, say, Jewel's tired platitudes or the pouty pop cliches dished out by Natalie Imbruglia. "I'm as big a fan of literature and words as I am of music," says Slean, currently on leave from her pursuit of a musical theory degree at the University of Toronto. "Well, maybe not. But it's a close second. And I don't write music without words swimming around in my head already. "Some guy dumped you? So who f---ing cares? People aren't making an effort to make art of the words as well as the music ... So that's what I'm trying hard to do, to make both sides have merit." That quest for merit is the main reason Slean's ascent into the music biz has thus far been a slow and steady one. A fixture on the local club circuit for the past four years, she juggled school and her extracurricular musical pursuits until this year. Nevertheless, during that time, she amassed some high-profile fans -- fellow Torontonians Our Lady Peace were taken enough with her soft rendition of their song "Julia" to adopt it while on tour earlier this year. _And_ she caught Atlantic's ear with her demos. Rather than rush to the majors, though, Slean scored a contract that will let her release a full-length album independently before her deal kicks in, so she can "get a fell for what it is I'm about to dive into. "It's really scary, I have to admit, saying I'm just going to do music," she says. "You know, I got to studios and there are all these CDs on the walls that I've never heard of." Some of her new songs get an airing when Slean performs next Wednesday night at The Reverb (651 Queen St. W.). ------------------------------ End of navy-soup-digest V1 #41 ******************************