From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V9 #44 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, April 4 2007 Volume 09 : Number 044 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] transit [Jim Colbert ] [RS] Louisiana 1927 ["John McDonnell" ] [RS] Louisiana 1927, political science ["Norman Johnson" ] Re: [RS] Delia. [=?ISO-8859-1?Q?john_cl=E9irigh?= ] [RS] Out back by the willow trees... ["Chris Foxwell" Subject: [RS] transit >> Two comments that have me shaking my head . . . >> >>>> "That is the best f***ing album I have ever heard in my life!!" << >> >> That would mean this is actually better than a CD made up of songs >> that >> Richard Shindell actually, you know, WROTE, and I have a difficult >> time >> believing that. > > As a whole...yes, yes it is...to me at least. While I love Vuelta and > Blue > Divide is (well was) my favorite RS album, this one takes the top > position > as a whole. Perhaps it's because he chose many of my favorite songs > and the > message behind them but the way in interprets them...it has the > potential of > becoming my favorite album ever. > Sorry to disappoint some of you but I personally don't like Transit and > inwardly groan when he closes every show I go to with it so to each > his own > I suppose! Indeed, we do all have our own likes, dislikes and are moved by different songs and CDs. (I vaguely recall someone years back thinking Wisteria was sappy, for instance; I find it beautiful and touching. I almost always skip over Merritt Parkway 2 a.m., but I know one person here loves that tune... meanwhile, I'd be a very sad man if I never got to hear Richard recording of Sonora's Death Row or Shades of Black, Shades of Blue again!) As a song, Transit is most fun to me when I'm hearing it in a New Jersey venue where it just feels like it belongs; otherwise I'm rather neutral on it - although it's VERY fun to play! On the whole, I'd rather have originals than covers, but that's just me. - -jim ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 17:58:29 -0400 From: "John McDonnell" Subject: [RS] Louisiana 1927 Hey All, Jim wrote: >>John, I think you would probably really like Richard's take on Louisiana 1927 if you ever have the chance to hear it, for much the same reasons<< I would very much like to hear it--are there any recordings floating around anywhere? John McD. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 16:35:56 -0400 From: "Norman Johnson" Subject: [RS] Louisiana 1927, political science On the subject of Louisiana 1927: I heard Richard play it *before* Katrina happened, and it blew me away. I may have heard the song before, but that was the first time I really noticed the song. And then it had even more meaning after Katrina. But it seems that Randy Newman was prescient with many songs. Much of his catalogue (see Political Science, for example) is at least as relevant today than when he wrote it. Norman ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 17:21:16 -0400 From: "John McDonnell" Subject: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V9 #43 Hi All, Counterintuitive though it may seem, I can see Kristen's point about this album vaulting to the top of her list. Covers, especially if you are familiar with and like the originals, can be more appealing than original songs because they present some common ground between you as listener and the artist. Also, it's not like the artists he covers are slouches--Dylan, A.P. Carter, Guthrie--so would RS be insulted if you liked his version of one of their songs better than one of his?? I don't know, but he's certainly in fine company. I know I like his versions of songs more than some originals, and that doesn't make him any less of an accomplished songrwiter, just an excellent interpreter of song. His version of "The Humpback Whale" is superb, for example. As far as the disc's place in the RS canon?? It's hard to place it, but I think I would place it above "Vuelta," (the bouzouki nothwithstanding, Jim!) though I haven't really ever thought of one RS album as "better" than any others, except for Sparrows Point, which is better than most albums, period. John McD. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 18:10:32 -0400 From: "John McDonnell" Subject: [RS] Covers I tried to post this before, but it didn't seems to go through: Hi All, Counterintuitive though it may seem, I can see Kristen's point about this album vaulting to the top of her list. Covers, especially if you are familiar with and like the originals, can be more appealing than original songs because they present some common ground between you as listener and the artist. Also, it's not like the artists he covers are slouches--Dylan, A.P. Carter, Guthrie--so would RS be insulted if you liked his version of one of their songs better than one of his?? I don't know, but he's certainly in fine company. I know I like his versions of songs more than some originals, and that doesn't make him any less of an accomplished songrwiter, just an excellent interpreter of song. His version of "The Humpback Whale" is superb, for example. As far as the disc's place in the RS canon?? It's hard to place it, but I think I would place it above "Vuelta," (the bouzouki nothwithstanding, Jim!) though I haven't really ever thought of one RS album as "better" than any others, except for Sparrows Point, which is better than most albums, period. John McD. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:39:22 -0600 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?john_cl=E9irigh?= Subject: Re: [RS] Delia. As much as I am enjoying this release, it's certainly not Vuelta. Vuelta will be a hard album for Richard to top as far as I'm concerned. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing any of these songs performed by Richard in concert save for Seqor 18 months ago, so it's my first experience with these interpretations, and I'm allowing them time to breathe before I decide their iPod status, but for now, every track remains in rotation. Ron, I think you'll really like "Sitting." It continues to be the standout for me. - -- John Cleirigh | Boulder, CO | 303/590.4290http://johncleirigh.com/ | http://myspace.com/johncleirigh Rongrittz@aol.com wrote: Two comments that have me shaking my head . . . "That is the best f***ing album I have ever heard in my life!!" << That would mean this is actually better than a CD made up of songs that Richard Shindell actually, you know, WROTE, and I have a difficult time believing that. Obviously everyone's entitled to his/her opinion, and it's easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of a new Richard Shindell record (and in the interests of full disclosure, I haven't heard anything but a few clips of the new songs), but you're telling me this is better than "Somewhere Near Paterson," "Sparrows Point" and "Vuelta?" Oooooo-kay. "Sitting on Top of The World" is the saddest song I've heard in a long, long, time << We talkin' about the same song here? Patty Griffin's "Top of the World," maybe . . . RG ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 03:01:32 -0400 From: "Chris Foxwell" Subject: [RS] Out back by the willow trees... I received my pre-order of "South of Delia" a few days ago, and after giving it a few whirls, I figured I'd chime in with my thoughts. Apologies for this huge post... I didn't mean to blab on so, but hey, we've got all this pent-up Shindell excitement... First off: Jim, when you quoted "Delia's Gone," I immediately thought of Al Stewart before Johnny Cash. Heh. Must be 'cause I'm excited to see him live in a few weeks... Right then. I really like the record, and pretty much all of Richard's interpretations. He exudes a palpable reverence and love for the songs, and it really shines through in his arrangements and presentation. He also sounds more relaxed and comfortable than I'm used to hearing him in the studio. Maybe those seem like mutually exclusive states, reverence and relaxation, but somehow they both seem to fit. I could go on to craft some lofty theory about the relationship of an artist to his creations, and how the presentation of one's own creations might differ from a comparatively egoless reworking of others' creations that you know and love, with corresponding differences in performance...but I'd totally be out of my element. :) Regardless, this album just feels...I dunno, freer, to me. Effortless, and beautiful because of it. All the same, I can't wait to hear more of his new material, and I'm glad that he's still performing mostly his own tunes in shows. Nothing beats Richard doing Richard in my book. Anyone hear any further workings on that "Juggler Out in Traffic" song? That has haunted me--in a good way--ever since I heard it last year. I'm curious about how "One Man's Arkansas" is shaping up as well. In terms of the overall theme of the album, I agree with John McD, Richard pretty much says it all in the liner notes. [Spoiler warning!] The artists have "met" on the album "to exchange news, to share their disbelief that it could ever come to this, to warn, to point the way, to provide a light." Applying my own further interpretation to this (also similar to John's), it seems to me that all of the songs have the common theme of loss, with its accompanying sorrow/plaintiveness/wistfulness, and occasionally outrage, applied in various ways and voices: through social/historical commentary, through personal lives, or via eternal expressions of universal feelings. Or, to repeat Richard's words, the feeling of "how could it ever have come to this [in my life/country/world]?" is, to me, the most omnipresent concept in the album. A few thoughts about the individual tunes: - --I love Richard's performance of "Acadian Driftwood" more each time I hear it. I believe I remarked, over a year ago, that Richard was "born to sing this song," and I still feel that way. I prefer his solo rendition best, I think, where his voice really really shines, but already my fondness for this recorded version has grown in the several times I've listened to the record. - --Conversely, I've never cared much for his solo performances of "Senor," but I love the version on this record. Dylan's original is hard to beat, of course, but Richard's is way more accessible. - --"Humpback Whale," along with "Storms Are On The Ocean," are probably my "meh" songs of the album. I like both of them, very much, but they don't really grab me the way the other tunes do. Or, rather, the lyrics themselves don't grab me; for "Humpback", what I like most is how the words *sound*, with Richard's voice as an additional "instrument" in the song, as opposed to what the words actually say. (I could go on to craft a lofty theory about...eh, never mind. Heh.) - --"Born in the U.S.A.": at first I just plain disliked Richard's version, period. That was after hearing it in several shows (solo). I confess that it's growing on me, though, and like "Senor" the album version has made it more listenable for me. I really like how he brings a different--more appropriate?--feel to the lyrics. I've never been a Springsteen guy, and hell, I always thought the song was a big ol' U.S.A. anthem/rallying call (and rather nauseating for that reason), having never really listened to the lyrics at all. RS's cover really brings out the lyrical meaning, as others have observed. Score (another) one for Richard. - --"Mercy Street" is quickly becoming the album's hidden gem for me. It's gorgeous. ("Hidden" only because I was fairly ambivalent about it before, and now I absolutely love it.) Richard's voice gains a lot when he sings very softly, I've always felt, like in his harmony on Lori's "Never Die Young," and this song really showcases that at times. - --"Northbound 35"...this one's tricky, because of how much I love the original, and Jeffrey Foucault in general (man, what an amazing artist). It has long been one of my favorite songs, ever, so I can't claim even the slightest objectivity. If I had to try, I'd say that there's something about Foucault's voice that is just perfect for the song, conveying a particular mixture of gruffness and tenderness, hesitancy and conviction, that I just can't see anyone duplicating. I prefer Foucault's lyrics emphasis in the song as well, but that's not a knock against Richard; just, if a song has already been done to perfection, anything short of a carbon copy isn't going to be, y'know, as perfect. (Totally my subjective opinion re: its perfection, of course.) - --Sitting on Top of the World: love it, but I was kind of hoping Richard would cut loose vocally a bit more, the way he does when performing it live. It's a bit more conservative here. But perhaps that's better, since it makes it easier to hear it as something other than the cheerful ditty that some people hear it as. (It may in fact be exactly that, and meant to be interpreted simply and literally, but I've never heard it that way.) - --Deportee: wonderful. Can't say much more about it...and you know I would if I could... - --Solo le Pido a Dios: a new one for me, and really pretty. Perhaps another song to play for my ESL students? Not as relevant as "Cancion," but I'm sure I could fit it in... (Speaking of language, as someone who is getting ready to attempt to learn some smattering of Spanish, I am extremely envious of how well Richard wraps his tongue around those "r"s. Just, damn.) - --Lawrence, KS: another tough one. Richard's voice is much nicer than Josh Ritter's, hands down, but in my opinion--and this is gonna sound crazy--I feel like it's almost too nice for the song. Maybe it's just because I'm used to the original, but I've always felt that part of the song's lament is conveyed through the bleak, semi-tuneless quality of Ritter's delivery. I did really like Richard's live performances of this song last year, but as I recall, he sang with more roughness and less polish then. I suspect I might feel differently about this after listening to Richard's cover a bunch more, though. I was really struck by how Richard's voice absolutely soars upwards on the chorus, only to come falling back down, in a perfect approximation of what the narrator is feeling; that is something that Ritter's voice doesn't achieve as dramatically, and it lends a whole new feel to the song. Either way, it really is a beautiful tune. That's about it from my end, for now at least. (I've been kicking around a cool little Nietzschean analysis of "There Goes Mavis," but I think I need to reread "Birth of Tragedy" before formulating it any further. I know, I know, be still your beating hearts.) Again, sorry for the length. Oh yes, and thanks to everyone for the great reviews lately! It'll probably be fall before Richard swings by my neck of the woods, so keep the reviews coming! - --Chris - -- "We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water." - --J.R.R. Tolkien ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V9 #44 **********************************