From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V3 #476 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 Sunday, December 23 2001 Volume 03 : Number 476 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Greetings, courier, etc. ["Greg Z" ] [RS] Re: Courier review....sort of.. [Rongrittz@aol.com] [RS] Re: I may have been hasty [Rongrittz@aol.com] Re: [RS] Re: Courier review....sort of.. [patrick t power ] Re: [RS] Re: Courier review....sort of.. ["Vanessa C. Wills" Subject: [RS] Greetings, courier, etc. Season's Greetings to all from a cold central Mass. Hopefully all have kept our heads above water in a tumultuous year. Cheers (na zdrowie) to a less eventful new year. Coming home from a family gathering a bit late last night, I had Courier playing in the car. When Next Best Western came on, I said "Adam, one of my favorites!" A tired 7 year old replied from the back seat "Dad, don't be fooling me, they're ALL your favorites." That's my boy! He does get his own copy as requested, I subbed Cry, Cry, Cry for a guy at work. With regards to reviewing Courier, I have no complaints. I won't tell them how to do their job, as long they don't tell me how to do mine. I am very happy with the cd. What isn't covered on the main cd is on the EP. Quite a pacakage, to me. I'm still figuring out some of the guitar licks, love that acoustic guitar style of "Johnny Starr!" Slightly OT, a little comment in the local paper yesterday, "the Red Sox organization is in worse shape than the Argentine economy." Go Sox, wait'll next year. (oft heard in these parts) Quite an analogy, eh? Best wishes to all, Greg Z - --- "I'll put this cloud behind me, that's how the Man designed me I'm no stranger to the rain"... Keith Whitley - -- Click here for your very own create-a-date adventure from MatchMaker Go to http://ecard.matchmaker.com/dating.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 19:32:43 EST From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: [RS] Re: Courier review....sort of.. Mark said "comments welcome," so . . . >> Is it just me, or is the version of "A Summer Wind, A Cotton Dress" heard here, a bit dull and lifeless? I love this song at RS concerts, and I love it on Blue Divide, but this seems to miss the mark for me... << The song's never been a particular favorite of mine, but I think the live version has a sweetness that's missing on the studio version. >> Another version of Kenworth?.......ugh.... << Not sure what you mean by "another version," as if there are already too many out there. The only other recorded one I'm familiar with is on the Treestar Coffeehouse CD, and I think this one blows that one away. >> The clappity-clap version of Arrowhead seems to lose some of the punch of the studio version. Still a great song, but not as effective done this way. << I always thought the original version was a little too zippy, and I believe I've even heard Richard indicate as much. To me, "Arrowhead" is absolutely the high point of the live CD, with Denny's drumming providing an intense urgency that's lacking on any other version I've heard. But that's just me . . . RG ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 19:32:48 EST From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: [RS] Re: I may have been hasty A few days ago, Vanessa wrote: >> Richard sings about the freaking Confederate soldier, for christ's sake, and he cuts so deep to the core of what makes the guy a human person that by god, I can relate. That, IMHO, is what makes Richard GREAT and not just really, really good. But Dar starts singing about her damned babysitter and I just want to run into "The Ocean" fast with a lot of heavy stones in my pockets. I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about. I mean, obviously, I do...but then, I don't.* I feel like her songs are just so darn Dar-centric. Life According to Dar. Darology. The World of Dar. << And there, in a nutshell, is the difference between them, and why I prefer Richard so much. I much prefer when singer/songwriters don't spend all their time pouring out "I -- me -- my" and are able to speak in the voice of others. Others, who, may be more interesting than the singer him/herself. (Nanci Griffith, are you listening?) There's a great music review column I read from time to time, called "The War Against Silence," and in a review of "Reunion Hill," the author, Glenn McDonald, pretty much nailed that same point on the head: _________________________ 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 ... 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: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 19:58:19 -0500 From: patrick t power Subject: Re: [RS] Re: Courier review....sort of.. Mark wrote: <> And RonG responded: <> I've been wanting to sit down and put together a fully fleshed-out "review" of the CD, but since this touches on one the points I was going to make . . . The drumming on this song is *very* reminiscent of the drumming on Dylan's "Series Of Dreams" . . . which very definitely gives the song a dynamism that isn't present in the original version. Pat ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 20:28:27 -0500 From: "Norman A. Johnson" Subject: [RS] Courier highlight RonG wrote: >> To me, "Arrowhead" is absolutely the high point of the live CD, with Denny's drumming providing an intense urgency that's lacking on any other version I've heard. But that's just me << Well for me, the highlight of this album (at the moment, I reserve the right to change my mind) is "Fishing". There's a certain snarl in Richard's voice that is not as prominent in the other versions (BLUE DIVIDE, Postcrypt). And it comes right after "Nora" which remains my favorite RS song.... but then you know that. Norman ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 21:25:54 -0500 From: "Vanessa C. Wills" Subject: Re: [RS] Re: Courier review....sort of.. "I am a citizen of the moment. I have built my white picket fence around the now." --The Tick On Sun, 23 Dec 2001 Rongrittz@aol.com wrote: > Mark said "comments welcome," so . . . > > >> Is it just me, or is the version of "A Summer Wind, A Cotton Dress" heard > here, a bit dull and lifeless? I love this song at RS concerts, and I love it > on Blue Divide, but this seems to miss the mark for me... << > > The song's never been a particular favorite of mine, but I think the live > version has a sweetness that's missing on the studio version. > Hmm... Well, the song always has been a particular favorite of *mine*, and I would have to agree with Ron. Not so much that I don't think the studio version is sweet (cuz I do), but that I do happen to find the live version even sweeter. And I certainly wouldn't use the words "dull and lifeless" to describe it by any stretch of the imagination! But hey--that's me. > >> Another version of Kenworth?.......ugh.... << > > Not sure what you mean by "another version," as if there are already too many > out there. The only other recorded one I'm familiar with is on the Treestar > Coffeehouse CD, and I think this one blows that one away. Ha--I think the point Mark was trying to make was that two versions were already two too many. ;-) Personally, I ADORE this song. Come on, who can resist the urge to belt out that chorus?! "Now, summtiiii-IIIIMES LAAAAYT owt ahn thaa-at interSTAYYYYYYT . . ." > > >> The clappity-clap version of Arrowhead seems to lose some of the punch of > the studio version. Still a great song, but not as effective done this way. << > > I always thought the original version was a little too zippy, and I believe > I've even heard Richard indicate as much. To me, "Arrowhead" is absolutely > the high point of the live CD, with Denny's drumming providing an intense > urgency that's lacking on any other version I've heard. Hmm. Still not sure how I feel about this version of Arrowhead. On the one hand, I'm feelin the urgency thing Ron mentioned, but I can be sympathetic to the clappity-clap complaints, too. Haven't yet made up my mind. > > But that's just me . . . > > RG ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V3 #476 ***********************************