From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V2 #228 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Wednesday, August 30 2000 Volume 02 : Number 228 Today's Subjects: ----------------- RE: [RS] Was Calling the Moon - Dar's Music [Katrin.Uhl@t-online.de (Katr] RE: [RS] Was Calling the Moon - Dar's Music - correction [Katrin.Uhl@t-on] [RS] Other Voices, Other Rooms. [Rongrittz@aol.com] [RS] $$$ [Sdgold60@aol.com] [RS] Viva le Difference [Gf212121@aol.com] Re: [RS] Viva le Difference [patrick t power ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 11:01:11 +0200 From: Katrin.Uhl@t-online.de (Katrin Uhl) Subject: RE: [RS] Was Calling the Moon - Dar's Music alright, part two of my Wednesday morning rants > I must confess, that of the Cry3 group, Dar is far and away my least > favorite. I really can't decide and I'm glad I don't have to. There are moods for all three of them. Dar started the whole singer songwriter thing of for me, Richard "entered my life" sometime in 97 and it wasn't til last year that I paid serious attention to Lucy (should have done that earlier, the woman rocks). They all touch different things in me. Dar is the one who comes the closest to having similar experiences than I did and do and to reflect that in her songs, age probably has a lot to do with that. Dar doesn't take me on journeys as much as Richard does. It's more that she knocks on my door and says, hey, I noticed you've been going through such and such phase and here's a song I want you to listen to cuz I know how that feels. Dar's songs are like calling up a friend to look for advice. You can tell she has lived most of her songs. That make them special. Yes, some of them are kind of rambly, but that's just the way Dar is. And I hope she keeps that quality, which makes her so unique, on her way to bigger audience and more "fame". Lucy, I can't put my finger on it what it is that I like the most about her songs. She just writes really beautiful songs, she rocks, and is a genuinely nice person and oh so funny. And she has a cool husband :-) Well, Richard, I said that in my last post, so I won't repeat that. > her lyrics are shallow, I don't see that at all, but that's just a matter of opinion. > she doesn't leave anything to the listener's > imagination. ... > Do you recommend Dar's The Green World? Calling the moon, another mystery ... I think you might like the new album. It definitely is more produced though, I like the production of most of the songs, but not all of them. She should have done without that organ, but that too, is just a matter of taste and opinion. I did decide which version of Calling the Moon I like better, BTW. It is Richard's. The song is just so much more mysterious when he does it. I think it is a Richard song, just as much as Mary Magdalen is a Lucy song. And talking about Richard, Sally said: > He really takes me on a journey when I listen to him, especially live. His > voice is sort of, not hypnotic, but something - it really grabs me and makes > me not just listen to the song, but it's like I *live* the song while he's > singing it. I *see* the house, or the fountain where Abuelita waits, or the > bridge where two people meet at night during the summer. I absolutely agree. He makes you see the songs. I know exactly what Reunion Hill looks like. And the nun changing the tire. He is like a painter. Except his images move. Well, I think that's it for now. I think I need to but on TGW now and dance to another mystery (be careful: it's addictive! :-) ) Katrin ____________________________________________ we come to pass not to stay all that matters anyway is what will follow you Peter Mulvey (all the way home) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 12:10:45 +0200 From: Katrin.Uhl@t-online.de (Katrin Uhl) Subject: RE: [RS] Was Calling the Moon - Dar's Music - correction ahh... that non-native-speaker-thing hit me again: > alright, part two of my Wednesday morning rants ramblings I meant to say of course, not rants... wanted to correct that, just in case... alright, I'll shut up now for the rest of the day, :) Katrin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 06:50:08 EDT From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: [RS] Other Voices, Other Rooms. Katrin sez: << Dar is the one who comes the closest to having similar experiences than I did and do and to reflect that in her songs, age probably has a lot to do with that. Dar doesn't take me on journeys as much as Richard does. It's more that she knocks on my door and says, hey, I noticed you've been going through such and such phase and here's a song I want you to listen to cuz I know how that feels. Dar's songs are like calling up a friend to look for advice. You can tell she has lived most of her songs. >> Which is, perhaps another reason I gravitate more to Richard than Dar . . . Richard takes us to other places. Dar takes us to Dar. From Glenn McDonald's wonderful 1997 review of "Reunion Hill" . . . ________________ Richard Shindell and Dar Williams are, in my opinion, folk music's two best storytellers, and so Richard's place in my heart, like Dar's, is as much a result of the stories he tells as how he tells them. Their storytelling styles are very different. Where Dar's songs always, to me, have Dar somewhere in them, even when the singer isn't explicitly a character, or is a character that couldn't be Dar herself, Richard's songs always seem to be about other characters, even when they're told in the first person. Like Raymond Carver, Shindell mostly lets his characters tell their own stories, so where Dar's songs explain and reveal and advocate, Richard's mostly just depict. Since most music marketing, these days, is largely based on selling the performer's personality and presence, this abstracted literary approach is commercially counterproductive, and thus not much in fashion (the only other artist I can think offhand of who consistently writes this way is Kate Bush), and even in the folk tradition omniscient narrators are much more common, but there are many stories that can be told properly in no other way. ________________ RG ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 06:58:07 EDT From: Sdgold60@aol.com Subject: [RS] $$$ like your worst nightmare i was there for dave carter and tracey grammar (i adore their music) and didnt have to announce it lets call it what it ...MAKE money ... all three $$$ have the capabilty to make more money does lucy kaplanksy make more dough after crycrycry and10 year night YUP was there an emphasis to SELL richards records..YUP does razor and tie and dar want to make as much as possible YUP then you get to the art the art is different.. i adore dars calling the moon she howls in better tones, the melody is better she wrote it.. i love richards NORA and richards mary magdelene there is something about the artist and his/her song gorka and lucy beat richard and lucy on graham parsons dont you want to see them do a sonny and cher thing to love hurts.. i view RS and DW diffferntly - not a higher standard i cant dance to richard. walk to him, clean my house to him ride my bike to him, i can listen to him for the sake of listening-its not bad-different the nields are snack food to me, You have to have it occasionally eddie from ohio is hte nields only smarter... and then dar - dar fits every situation i can think of and richard I adore live- he doesnt play well on my cd player maybe i need a new cd player.. consider yourself hacked and your butt kicked beware of strange woman in a black coat that hang in the dirt with hair that clings in the rain and she was recently released from the cult of ... you were talking C&G i was over there hyping a record... now i am going to listen to MY new new loretta lynn record... sharon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 07:10:29 EDT From: Gf212121@aol.com Subject: [RS] Viva le Difference Hey you guys, After hearing Richard speak about songwriting at FRFF this year, and reading quite a bit about his motives, or inspirations, or what have you, it seems that he writes songs about people or ideas that interest him at the time he is writing the song. I can't conceive of him writing a 'concept' album, because he probably wouldn't want to concentrate on that concept long enough to write 11 or 12 songs about it. I'm definitely paraphrasing here, but when asked about the inspiration for 'Transit,' he said that he thought the song should be about six minutes long. For someone to whom songwriting seems to be such a labor, Richard has created many songs that are, in my mind, brilliant. This amazes me. About all this 'who is better' stuff --- I don't know of anyone who can listen to the same CD over and over for more than a couple of days. It's great to have new Dar stuff. I've listened to TGW more than any other CD over the last few weeks. This will change, as it did for SNP, and any new CD I get. I already have 9/12 marked on my calendar for the release of the new Joan Osborne CD, which will jump right to the top of my 'most played' list, which is, as of Monday, the domain of those evil interlopers, Dave and Tracy. I wouldn't have it any other way. Norman said that he is thankful that he doesn't have to choose. We all should be, and be grateful that there is so much good stuff out there. Gene F. (who is convinced that if Richard wrote the 'Titanic' theme, it would have been from the point of view of the iceberg. You know, "Just sit here in this frozen sea, waitin' for the boat." Hey, maybe next week's topic should be potential Weird Al Yankovic versions of Richard songs. I got dibs on 'Diptheria') ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 07:35:30 -0700 From: patrick t power Subject: Re: [RS] Viva le Difference Gene signed off: <> This has already been done, actually . . . by a fellow named David Olney. It's called "Titanic" and is on his "Eye Of The Storm" CD. Pat ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V2 #228 ***********************************