From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V2 #357 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 3 2000 Volume 02 : Number 357 Today's Subjects: ----------------- RE: [RS] Re: the year in music - in defence of MCC [Katrin.Uhl@t-online.d] [RS] Re: for Sally [Tom926@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 10:19:26 +0100 From: Katrin.Uhl@t-online.de (Katrin Uhl) Subject: RE: [RS] Re: the year in music - in defence of MCC A quiet Sunday morning here, still on my first cup of coffee and I probably should refrain from jumping into this conversation before I am really awake, but... RonG said: > Well, you folks know how much I hate to be opinionated and all, but . . . :) I have yet to post my CD-list but maybe it's a good thing Joan didn't release a new album this year or else we'd fall right back into the "Joan sucks vs. Joan is absolutely amazing"-debate... :-) Alright now, the reason I am writing at this early hour of the morning is to back up sharon on MCC. Now other than that I am partial to small labels in general, I don't really care who is signed with whom once they have made the move to big labels anyway. (maybe I would if I knew more about big labels). MCC: granted, her music might not fit into the little "contemporary singer songwriter" niche (if you believe in labels of that sort), it might have a more broad approach. I'm no country expert so I don't know if she "is real country" or not ("good country" by my definition: just the right amount of twang in the voice to not sound obnoxious to me :) ) But the woman has the talent to write songs for all my moods, if I want to dance - lots of songs to chose from, if I need a song to sooth my soul, Jubilee, if I need to find a source of energy, Why walk when you can fly, and ever since I applied "shut up and kiss me" to its proper use I feel like I passed MCC 101 :-) so, what I'm trying to say is: she is very different from most of the singer songwriters I listen to, but she definitely is a brilliant singer songwriter in her own right. IMHO of course :) Alright, now I'll start thinking about the best album question... later guys, Katrin ____________________________________________ we come to pass not to stay all that matters anyway is what will follow you Peter Mulvey (all the way home) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 04:28:20 EST From: Tom926@aol.com Subject: [RS] Re: for Sally Well I must admit that your post got me thinking. And mostly what it got me thinking about is, ironically, Virginia Woolf. Which I must admit is probably odd, but something she said about writing in "A Room of One's Own" struck me as very relevant to your post. You stated: Okay, and lest our lovely list turn into "Why other artists don't grab me like Richard does," let's try to gently keep in mind that our topic on this list is Richard Shindell's music. Okay, fair enough. But as Woolf pointed out in that wonderful essay, books don't happen in isolation. They are responses to the world and especially to other books. And to pretend that a book happens in isolation does a disservice to both the writer and to the reader. I think music is the same. And actually there are many musicians who grab me as much and even more than Mr. Shindell. But contextualizing his music has definitely made me appreciate it more. It is almost a truism that everyone will describe someone's music in terms of someone else's music. "Well Richard reminds me of x, y, and/or q." It is a kind of shorthand, but I also think it has to do with what dear Virginia happened to say about books: things--particularly, but not just in particular, art--do not happen in isolation. I for one would be very sad if this interesting posting site completely narrowed its focus to RS, as talented as he is. I think the Dar/Richard comparisons are natural because their careers have been so closely linked. But the comparisons have made me look much more closely at just how Richard (and Dar) *construct* a song. What choices they make in terms of lyrical stance, instrumentation, production, etc. I am not a musician so I can't talk in terms of music theory, but the whole debate has, for example, made me spend the whole day playing BOTH Richard and Dar. And Mary Black (well a monodiet is not good for anyone, which may be my point). So I say let the debate rage on. People in this world tend not to be passionate about much. So it is a real little perk to my day to open up an email from this posting site and hear a debate rage on about this singer or that. I mean, I for one would never have heard of Dave and Tracy or Kathryn Williams without it. And that debate has made me, for instance, really look at how RS builds a song from some narrative detail. Not something that I would probably have looked at without the debates raging on this list. Or, of course, we could be less passionate and talk about the presidential election. I am POSITIVE that would be far less controversial than the RS/DW/MCC etc etc debates on here. Hey, what do ya say? Just a thought... Tom ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V2 #357 ***********************************