From: owner-small-repairs-digest@smoe.org (small-repairs-digest) To: small-repairs-digest@smoe.org Subject: small-repairs-digest V1 #109 Reply-To: $SENDER,small-repairs@smoe.org Sender: owner-small-repairs-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-small-repairs-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk small-repairs-digest Saturday, October 4 1997 Volume 01 : Number 109 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [s-r] Exalting the Messenger - Jane Siberry [Mooodeee@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 08:18:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Mooodeee@aol.com Subject: Re: [s-r] Exalting the Messenger - Jane Siberry In a message dated 97-10-02 19:15:29 EDT, you write: << BTW, what's Siberry like? Have you ever checked out her Web Page? http://www.sheeba.ca/tableofcontents.html . Especially nutty is the Tunderland section. -- Greg Welker >> Hi Greg! Thanks for responding! Yes, Sheeba has a great website! I have it bookmarked. I love the whole site!!! (I wish Shawn had a site like this!! :::half pout, half beg::::) Yes, Tunderland is very cute!! Jane Siberry... the artist that gives the kind of performance that per Shawn can literally "bring her to tears." The one artist that Shawn proclaims as being so phenomenal that it makes Shawn want to hang it all up and quit playing because of extreme envy and admiration. How was Jane? hmmm.... I wish I had taken a pad and paper to record my thoughts and emotions. No. I was too preoccupied with the experience to break concentration and write it all down. And to think about it, it really couldn't help me in my attempts to describe what it was that I saw and heard last Friday evening. Let's see.... It was weird. It was spacey and bizarre. It was like smoking pot while listening to audiotapes of Carl Sandburg in a dark room while floating on your back in hot black water. ;-) It was entrancing. It was brilliant and filled with love. I wish I could be more specific about the show, but I was in la-la land. Jane as you know is not your typical folk storyteller. Her lyrics are like words peering out from inside the eyes of Sylvia Plath, sung to the dramatic pauses of Laurie Anderson. She flutters like a crazy-eyed child spilling spontaneous imagination from the fly. Her voice a skilled stringed instrument whose notes tell intensely specific stories of their own... soothing... at times big and strong, but mostly that of an angel. Her performance last Friday was three full hours of mystery, innocence, fear, sensuality, darkness, and euphoria. Jane Siberry live?... a required course for any studious Shawn fan. Some interesting things Jane shared with us: She writes her songs, both lyrics and music, improvisationally!... in one case, she completely improvised a song live on the air on a Canadian radio station (I am drawing a blank on which song it was). When making it up, if the song was lucky enough to be captured on audio tape, she and her band ensemble would go back, listen to it, and painfully LEARN it----just as if doing a cover song. I guess I would call this style "singing in tongues" or even "channeling." Very fascinating! It takes true genius to do something like that--- and for Jane, she can do it without blinking an eye. Also, I recall reading somewhere that Shawn was recently quoted as saying something to the effect that the recording industry often exalts some artists while there are others who perhaps more deserve to be as highly promoted, remain hidden in obscurity and left unsigned or even dropped. Currently, Jane is not signed with a record company. For Jane, there is a roughly projected, somewhat rebellious anti-establishment feeling that she prefers having it this way (and knowing how creatively independent she is, it does seem to suit her quite well.) Thinking about it, her first cd under a record label "No Borders Here" was signed to Windham Hill. From my own observation, Windham Hill seems to have a bad history of discovering powerful talent, most often sequestering rather than promoting them, and finally dropping them (against the will of their devoted following) like dead weight. And to top it off, they are known to maliciously hold captive the recording rights to the artist's own songs. [a little birdie tells me that all record companies can be like that.] From what I know, once she parted ways with Windham Hill, she was picked up by Reprise/Warner. I am guessing by her current unsigned status that Reprise had given a similar fate. Windham, Reprise, (or both) are holding publishing rights to Jane's songs which have been previously recorded on their label(s). In other words, she does not own them. Therefore, the record companies have the right to restrict the use of the songs if they so desire. Jane has expressed that she has been deeply hurt by this evil business tactic---and thanks to them, so have WE because we have to wait at least another 2-3 years before Jane can record any of those songs on a live cd that she can sell at her shows. (We're talking about nearly 11 years worth of songs here!!!) God forbid if Sony tried to pull that crap on Shawn. Live '88 is one of my favorites (and safely in the hands of Plump Records). I would be devastated if her former record companies (once she is no longer signed with them) restricted Shawn from being able to record a live cd containing remakes of songs previously recorded under their label. To me, her live stuff is the best. It would be a tragic loss. Fleeing from the muck, I admire Jane for taking obstacles and transforming them into opportunity, as she is now the founder and President of her OWN record company, Sheeba. Any whim is her executive decision now. The more I think about it, this is better for us as listeners because our directly expressed ideas and feedback makes us the company's board of directors. (Check out her website above---she faithfully reads and responds to her listeners, and in fact, has an open forum of Q&A discussion onstage with her audience immediately after her live performances). By listening to her listeners (and by being in a position to respond) it brings us closer to her music and makes us an intimate part of what we hear. hmmm..... come to think of it.... its the intimacy (and secrecy) of the music that we love the most and treasure as our own. Who needs a stadium full of "Sunnyfans" anyway? hehehe ;-) Yours from Austin, - --Mimi "I need a job" --Aristotle - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from the list send mail to majordomo@smoe.org with 'unsub scribe small-repairs' in the message body. FAQ & other info: http://www. tisd.net/~casey/shawn/small_repairs.html *REMEMBER* all posts not directly related to Shawn must have the tag 'NSC:' is their subject line - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ End of small-repairs-digest V1 #109 *********************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from the list send mail to majordomo@smoe.org with 'unsub scribe small-repairs-digest' in the message body. FAQ & other info: http ://www.tisd.net/~casey/shawn/small_repairs.html *REMEMBER* all posts not directly related to Shawn must have the tag 'NSC:' is their subject line ------------------------------------------------------------------------