Showing posts with label acoustic gold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acoustic gold. Show all posts

Paul Simon Songbook Review

Paul Simon Songbook
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Paul Simon Songbook ReviewThe arrival of this album on compact disc (at last!) is a true delight for die-hard Paul Simon fans, and should provide a real delight of discovery for more casual listeners. A bit of history, first: This was the product of one of several pauses in the Simon and Garfunkel partnership. The two enjoyed a hit record in the 1950s as Tom and Jerry, but went their separate ways for a while before coming together to record "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." Although the album was billed as featuring "exciting new sounds in the folk tradition," it didn't create much excitement, vanishing almost without a trace.
So it was back to college for Art, and off to England for Paul, where he played in small underground clubs. A BBC announcer championed Simon's work, prompting public requests to buy recordings of his music. In May of 1965, Simon went into Columbia's studios in London with his acoustic guitar to record the tracks that made up this album. Some are repeated from "Wednesday Morning 3 A.M."; others would later find their way onto the second and third Simon and Garfunkel releases. According to one biography, the entire album was recorded in an hour, with Simon doing only one take of each song. (However, the liner notes on this release contradict that, indicating, for instance, the version of "Leaves That Are Green" that appears is take 11.)
The production bill for this simple venture reportedly totaled $300. (And yes, that's Kathy, of "Kathy's Song" fame, with him on the cover.) While the recordings from these 1965 sessions may lack the signature Garfunkel harmonies and the American studio polish, they offer a unique look at these masterpieces in their purest essence: just a man, his guitar, and the deepest feelings of his soul.
This might have been the birth of Simon's career as a solo recording artist. But back in the states, Tom Wilson, producer of "Wednesday Morning 3 A.M." was preparing to add electric guitar, bass and drums to one of the cuts from that album...a song that was also included on the "Songbook." It was "Sounds of Silence." And the rest, as they say, is history.
The "Songbook" has only been available in the U.S. as a vinyl import until now, except for its inclusion in a briefly-available boxed set of Simon's solo works. This long-overdue, but highly welcome release will help to fill a gap in many collections and provide an opportunity for fresh appreciation for these timeless songs.--William C. HallPaul Simon Songbook Overview

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Clouds Review

Clouds
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Clouds ReviewI've often said that The Beatles were the geniuses of rock, but it was more of a collective genius with George Martin included. They fed off of each other's individual muse. Joni Mitchell, however, is a genius that stands on her own. Her music and lyrics meld into a seamless, living, breathing whole - taking on a magical essence that's greater than the sum of its parts. And those parts are some of the most brilliantly advanced and artful musings you will find in popular music.
"Clouds" (1969) is a fabulous collection of songs, and one of my favorite albums. It begins with "Tin Angel," about someone (Joni?) with memories of a past love who finds another with a soul as sad as her own. The verses are in a minor mode, so minor-infused they're practically mournful. When she gets to the last line of each chorus, "I found someone to love today," her minor guitar chords still amble, even right through the word "love," but finally resolve to major as she sings "to-day" (and even then there seems to be some hesitation as the chord smiles briefly). The song is pure magic. "Chelsea Morning" awakens us out of the gloom with a burst of sunlight - rhythmically bright, filled with hope and anticipation:
"Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my SENSES
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present TENSES"
How can I not be moved? The entire album seduces me. Her meaningful lyrics are veritable stories one can become lost in, filled with thought-provoking relevance. The music supports her storytelling, bursting with sensual richness. The sound of her voice alone makes me swoon. I can only describe her vocal harmonies on "The Gallery" as heavenly. On "Songs To Aging Children Come," her lyrics, melodies and chords all soar to celestial heights while the rhythms of her guitar keep the whole thing anchored. One could depict this - like much of the album - as at once both cosmic and earthy. Her unaccompanied vocal on "The Fiddle and the Drum" can give me a lump in my throat, but that's no matter, since the concluding "Both Sides, Now" (which ranks among the most intoxicatingly gorgeous songs I know), is a song that can reduce me to tears.
Joni Mitchell is a genius in the truest sense of the word. She is an artist of the highest order. Words often elude me when attempting to describe what I feel when I listen to her music. She reaches deep inside of me - and I'm never quite the same after listening to one of her albums. If you are new to Joni Mitchell, I suggest starting with "Clouds" or "Song to a Seagull." Get to know her through these two, then continue on.
Cheers,
MurrayClouds OverviewJoni was 25-and already a revered songwriter-when this 1969 classic made her a star. Her first Top 40 LP, it boasts her original Both Sides Now and Chelsea Morning plus I Don't Know Where I Stand; Tin Angel a beautiful, stark masterpiece.

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Song To A Seagull Review

Song To A Seagull
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Song To A Seagull ReviewThis album has so often been deprecated by fans and critics of the great Mrs. Mitchell. Too verbose and sophomoric! Too gloomy! Poorly-recorded! Stuck in its era! Or, the damning-with-faint-praise, It held forth the promise of what was to come! Well, admitting a partiality to her early work (pre-"Don's Juan Reckless Daughter"), I would rate this as the third-best Joni album (out of 17 in her career) behind only Blue and Ladies of the Canyon. Yes, it's even better than the great Court and Spark, or even its most-comparable competitor, Clouds.
Musically, Song to a Seagull is grand in its simplicity - the vast majority of the songs feature Joni's fascinating guitar work as the stark support for her piercing, soaring soprano. While Joni's vocals are schooled and formal, they are nonetheless heartbreakingly beautiful, and the looseness afforded by the spare instrumentation (not to mention "producer" David Crosby's love of cavernous echo) gives this a stormy romanticism reminiscent of Tim Buckley's Happy Sad. As for the song selection, it would seem that in response either to what was popular at the time, or to Joni's personal outlook and mood as the album was assembled, she eschewed the many of her songs already made popular by other artists - "Both Sides Now," "Urge for Going," "Circle Game," "Chelsea Morning," "Eastern Rain," etc. - in favor of several that consistently featured fairy-tale or nautical imagery. The lyrics, in all of their fanciful, Byzantine Tolkienisms, can be taken or left - I, for one, embrace them! And so will anyone else who appreciates colorful escapism.
What carries the day here, though, is the wistful, melancholy, fiercely free and lonely mood created in the themes of these stories of being stung in life and love - and of stinging others ("Cactus Tree") - by Joni's singing of her haunting melodies. "I Had a King," with its arppegiated "tenement castle" dismissal of the former Mr. Mitchell and the oppression of traditional marriage, has long been my favorite, but there's so much else to appreciate here - "Sisotowbell Lane," "The Dawntreader" (which makes interesting use of the smoky low end of Joni's range - the only range she can use anymore!), the much-ballyhooed anthem "Cactus Tree," and especially the woefully underrated title song. Freedom, dreaminess, and lonely sorrow. I believe that Song to a Seagull (the album, but especially the song) is a personal crie de coeur for the loss of innocence - and a despairing of the possibility of ever finding a soulmate or making a relationship work. And yet there is a retained innocence in the stark openness of Joni's writing and performance. It captures a Joni Mitchell that was not before, and would never be again.
This album is so often condemned for being stuck in its time, but those aspects which date it the most are its very appeal, to these ears at least. It takes a certain charming naivete to engage in the hippy-dippy imaginings of some of these lyrics and the Loreena McKennitt-esque antiquarian vocal formality. If you like Nick Drake, Renaissance, Denny-era Fairport, or Astral Weeks, you should love this classic.Song To A Seagull OverviewNo Description Available.Genre: Popular MusicMedia Format: Compact DiskRating: Release Date: 10-MAR-1992

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6 & 12 String Guitar Review

6 and 12 String Guitar
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6 & 12 String Guitar ReviewNo one--and I mean no one--has produced a more stunning debut in any genre than Leo Kottke did with 6- and 12-String Guitar. And even more amazing, consider Kottke's comments from the liner notes in Anthology: "We didn't know about sequencing, so the record [6- and 12-String Guitar] is in the order it was recorded...The record took three-and-a-half hours to do, and all I had to do was sit down and play everything I ever knew." This is 36 minutes and 38 seconds of genius. I'm willing to bet that Kottke ended many a would-be guitarist's career. [How could you listen to this album and expect to compete at the same level?]
Kottke can play achingly beautiful melodies like on the original "Crow River Waltz" or Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and then turn around and dazzle you with with the speed and brilliance on tunes like "Busted Bicycle" and "Vaseline Machine Gun," (a tune he revisited on 1997's Standing in My Shoes).
While Kottke does possess a wonderful baritone voice and has worked with additional musicians, on this outing Kottke lets his guitar do all the talking--and it speaks with an authoritative voice.
This album was originally released on John Fahey's tiny Takoma label. While Kottke and Fahey are frequently mentioned in the same breath, Kottke's guitar style has always been easier on the ear. Over the last 30 years, Kottke has been responsible for some of the most innovative and beautiful solo guitar music. Here's where it all began. ESSENTIAL6 & 12 String Guitar OverviewNo Description Available.Genre: Folk MusicMedia Format: Compact DiskRating: Release Date: 26-MAR-1996

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DVD-The Guitar of David Wilcox-Secrets of Open Tunings and Song Accompaniment Review

DVD-The Guitar of David Wilcox-Secrets of Open Tunings and Song Accompaniment
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DVD-The Guitar of David Wilcox-Secrets of Open Tunings and Song Accompaniment ReviewIf you enjoy David Wilcox music and you are an intermediate guitar player yourself, you will get a lot out of this dvd. It is filmed like a personal session with David Wilcox showing you how to tune and finger a few of his songs. I enjoyed it very much just watching it the first time. Now I am in the process of learning some of the fingerings for some of my favorite songs.DVD-The Guitar of David Wilcox-Secrets of Open Tunings and Song Accompaniment Overview

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