From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V9 #45 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 045 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] LA ('27, not freeway) [Jim Colbert ] [RS] Originals vs Covers [Adam Plunkett ] [RS] Delia [Janet Cinelli ] Re: [RS] Out back by the willow trees... [Greg Dennis Subject: [RS] LA ('27, not freeway) On Apr 4, 2007, at 3:01 AM, shindell-list-digest wrote: > 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. I thought the same thing about this song. I had never really grasped the power of this song before I heard Richard do it, and I still maintain it should have been included on Delia. Speaking of great songwriters, we saw Guy Clark last weekend. I'm feeling kind of spoiled musically here this month, considering this ain't exactly a metro area... by month's end, I'll have seen Guy Clark, Slaid Cleeves, Marc Douglas Berardo (a personal favorite, although not that well-known), Rod Picott, Richard, Modern Man and We're About Nine. Oh yeah, Christine Lavin at the Brew, too. (I'm just not overly excited about that one.) Geez, it's barely giving me time to stalk Red Molly... - -Jim ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 06:08:38 -0700 (PDT) From: Adam Plunkett Subject: [RS] Originals vs Covers My thoughts: First, I think it's close to impossible to compare an album of original recordings to an album of covers. With that said, this just isn't an album ofd 12 songs - this is a reason for each one of the tunes and they flow together nicely thanks to the theme that runs through the whole album. A great album in my opinion is one where every track is worth listening with a few gems and prefer albums that seem to follow some sort of theme rather than being a bunch of tracks....and "South of Delia", like "Vuelta", acheives that. It's too early for me to think about where I would put my this album in comparison to the others but I think it may end up in the top half due to it being so good track after track. I don't feel that way about all of Richard's releases (though I enjoy each album very much). There isn't a track I don't like on the whole album. The two songs that didn't wow me live - "Lawrence KS" and "Born in the USA" - are much better on album. I am not a fan of Josh Ritter but this is a really good song...and a great close to the album. "Acadian Driftwood" is a wonderful track and it is great to finally have it on record. "Senor" is better on record than live - Richard's electric slide guitar is great and gives it the atmosphere that it needs. And I would even say it's better than Dylan's original. Being a huge fan of traditional songs and music, "Humpback Whale" and "Storms Are on the Ocean" I like a lot. (I know they are not traditional songs but they are in the spirit of traditional songs and AP Carter was adapting SOTO from a trad. Scottish tune called "Lass of Loch Royale") "Mercy Street" is another great track - I am not familar with the song so it had a new-ness quality for me. I actually prefer Richard's version of "Northbound 35" to Foucault's mainly because I don't like the style of his accompaniest (David Goodrich, just my opinion!) when he recorded the song. "Top of the World" is great. There are lots of version of this song and he found a way to make his version unique. "Solo" is a song I have loved for a long time. I wasn't convinced Richard could play up there with other versions (like the original or Tao-Ridriguez Seeger's version) but it is a beautiful rendition. In my opinion, Richard has made two prqactically perfect albums in a row and I can't think of many contemporary artists who can claim that. Is it better than his "orginals"? Who knows. But it's awfully damn good and there are top-notch songs here. - --------------------------------- Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 06:57:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Janet Cinelli Subject: [RS] Delia I've been enjoying everyone's thoughts on the new album. I never heard any of these songs except Springsteen's which is the only one I'm not able to wrap myself around, not yet anyway. I take that back, I've heard Richard sing "Sitting on top of the World" a few times. I too sense the freeness in Richar'ds voice that Chris mentioned. I am quite taken with "Humpback Whale" that a beautiful melody is being used to tell a terrible story. The fact that the narrator made the whale female just adds to the tragedy, at least to me. I envision her fighting so hard to possibly protect her baby and the fact that the baby is witnessing this massacre of its mother. I know I'm reading too much into the song but it hit me right in the heart. Every year we go to Summerfest which takes place in an old whaling town in Massachusetts and I can never bring myself to look at the pictures in the whaling museum. Mercy Street: I like hearing Richard's soft voice practically whispering, very moving. I really like the Spanish song though I don't know what it's about. I sent the lyrics to my daughter who is fluent and she sees it as a protest song! Though she's yet to send me the translation but the melody is beautifully haunting. Overall, it's an incredible album! Incredible and there's a lonliness, a sadness that permeates throughout the whole album. My only hope was that a Dave Carter song would've made it in here. I think "Long Black Road into Tulsa Town" would've fit right in. And of course I was praying Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat" would've also been included but beggars can't be choosers and I'm thankful the album finally got released! Count me in as someone who loves "Merritt Parkway, 2:00 a.m." Of course I renamed it "Long Island Expressway, 5:00 p.m." That's when I listen to it, dreaming its 2:00 a.m. and I'm not stuck in bumper to bumper traffic! Janet PS I'm wondering, is Richard selling that live cd taped in Vermont (I think)at his shows? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection. Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/features_spam.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 07:57:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Greg Dennis Subject: Re: [RS] Out back by the willow trees... Liked rcomments, Chris, and I especially agree about the freeness of voice, etc. on Delia, as Richard honors and reinvents these wonderful songs. It's another reason to appreciate his many talents. And as for Mavis, well, along with Nietzche spinning in his grave, we await your analysis. Chris Foxwell wrote: 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 #45 **********************************