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| What's
on Disc by Thomas Schulte |
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NEWS
AND VIEWS *****
ANI DIFRANCO: SOLO FOR FIRST TIME IN EIGHT YEARS
 April
2002 Ani DiFranco heads out on a rare solo performance tour in the
Eastern U.S. This is her first solo tour in eight years. In 1994
her fans had a multi-city tour offering personal, bare solo performances.
The set list for this tour will include selection from DiFranco
songbook ranging form older classics to her latest double-album
Revelling/Reckoning, as well as new material. Opening on
the tour is underground folk musician sensation Dan Bern. He offers
"brash humor and addictive wit." Dan shared the stage with Ani on
several tours in the late 1990s. Ani produced his 1998 album 50
Eggs. |
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STYLUS
COUNCIL (VINYL REVIEWS) *****
DQE
DQE
Old Gold, POB 8776, Atlanta, GA 31106
http://www.nicanfhilidh.net/oldgold/
oldagolda@hotmail.com
This is a noisy, clamorous affair of enthusiasm propelling each
track forward. T3o of the trio of tracks from the trio DQE arrangement
are originals by vocalist/guitarist Grace Braun. Also included here
is Jimmy Fautheree's anthem about getting locked out of a wild party,
"I Can't Find the Doorknob," a song with credence in the rockabilly
scene and recorded by Jimmy and Johnny in 1958. DQE straddles psychobilly
and cow punk in the most deconstructed, primitive forms on this
raw 45. Grace Braun grew up learning mountain folk songs and hymns
in Kentucky. The DQE she formed in high school has thus a folk and
country substrate but the soul and delivery is garage punk.
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| MARCH
2002 REVIEWS >>>>>>>>>> |
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Kristi
Martel
Brave Enough
Sealed Lip Records
POB 30484, Oakland, CA 94604
Kristi Martel's dynamic and skillful phrasing, an ever-changing
component of her delivery, makes this vocal album an impressive
effort. Tracks like "Silver" offer the charming, hip style of electric
neo-folk artist Ani DiFranco. However, Martel builds on this with
sophisticated jazz improvisation delivered naturally and easily,
as on the climax of "See You Sweet." (4.5) |
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 Jude
Johnstone
Coming of Age
BoJak Records
301 N. Lake Ave., #310, Pasadena, CA 91101
http://www.bojakrecords.com
Jude Johnstone is an established songwriter. Stevie Nicks, Johnny
Cash, Trisha Yearwood, Bonnier Raitt and Jennifer Warnes covered
some of this material. Raitt and Warnes show up to perform on some
of these tracks, as does Jackson Browne. As a matter of fact, the
lineup on each track differs, adding variety to this album already
made exquisite by the excellent songwriting. The performance is
also top-notch, as one would expect from a woman who began playing
music as soon as she could reach a piano keyboard and is here singing
her own successful creations. (4) |
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Tannis
Slimmon
Oak Lake
Tannis Slimmon
POB 24062, Bullfrog, Guelph, ON N1E 6V8, Canada
http://www.tannis.ca
This is the first solo album from Canada's Tannis Slimmon, formerly
of The Bird Sisters, Crows Feet and Benji. Her hometown on the Canadian
prairie lent its name to the title track. The rest of the album
is a biography in song about the transition from the Manitoba family
farm to a southern Ontario city. Many musical guests appear in the
telling, including bluesman Harry Manx and Jeff Bird (Cowboy Junkies).
The well-wrought tunes are joyous exhibitions of vocal harmony as
Tannis accompanies herself on guitar and mandolin. This album has
a full, contemporary rootsy sound entirely accessible to fans of
country, pop and AAA. Each track builds onto the previous reaching
a jubilant plateau in "My Body Moves" featuring a bright trumpet
line. (4) |
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 Chao
Hitsthemiss
Last Beat Records
2819 Commerce, Dallas, TX 75226
http://www.lastbeatrecords.com
http://www.chaomusic.com
Chao is the début recording of the new group fronted by Regina Chellew.
Formerly, she fronted Captain Audio. This is potent indie pop guaranteed
to affect the listener with the clear, clarion vocals and quick-paced,
bright beats. Captain Audio had a grand tradition of covers, sometimes
doing whole albums in concert. Here, Regina includes a cover; an
excellent rendition of "Lay Lady Lay." On this track, she sings
in duet with Marcus Striplin (Pleasant Grove). The potent delivery
on this album, crisp production and arrangements that effectively
punctuate every rhythmic possibility make Hitsthemiss a superlative
album. (4.5) |
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 Amy
Jane
Wide Open
Pinnacle Records
http://www.amyjane.com
Singer-songwriter Amy Jane has an excellent offering in her concept
album. This is a 16-axis theory of dimensionality exploring the
different direction toward becoming emotionally "wide open." The
emotional and interpersonal path through life has such geologic
features as peaks and valleys and Amy charts the discoveries and
sacrifices that map onto this textured landscape. Her included lyrics
show her understanding of the difficulties and rewards in making
this journey: "There were dark places/that we pushed through/Each
time we reached the clear/I knew a deeper love with you." (3.5)
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The
Revillos
Totally Alive in London
Ahoy
http://www.captainoi.com/
http://www.Revillos.co.uk
Featuring a two-pronged vocal approach from the squeaking singer
Fay Fife and punkish Eugene Reynolds, The Revillos was the unpretentious
comic relief of post-punk power pop. This peerless release of an
entirely successful show by the reformed group in 1996 includes
a 12-page comic by Vince Ray. The backup singers coo and the organ
pumps and the guitar jangles or features single-note leads in total
denial of everything that happened in the '90's from the time capsule
group. Mixing pop with camp and featuring such pure-spun covers
as "Glad All Over," this is unadulterated bubblegum punk in a set
that includes all the group's best material at their first show
in the West in over eleven years. (4.5) |
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Belinda
Scroggins
Mystical Madness
Jewel Recording Studios
1594 Kinney Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45231
http://www.belindascroggins.com
Cincinnati, Ohio singer-songwriter Belinda Scroggins has a full,
rich voice with which she expresses herself powerfully. Nicely accenting
this rich vocal ability is subtle background vocals by Belinda and
two other vocalists. Acoustic piano, synthesizer strings and the
exotic percolations of bright ethnic percussion more fully augment
the dynamic arrangements on this well-wrought CD of personal and
revealing songs. Beyond the varied instrumentation, much of the
success of this recording comes from the authentic feeling Belinda
pours into delivering these lyrics (included in the CD booklet)
that she also poured her heart into writing. The feeling of these
tracks ranges from soul-bare poignant ballads ("The Wanting Never
Fades") to tougher declarations with a rock edge ("A Stranger to
Myself"). (3) |
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Linda
Smith
Emily's House
Preference Recordings
http://www.homemademusic.com
Linda Smith made this home recording during a month-long residency
at The Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, New York. The Millay
Colony is the former home of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and it
is with a poet's care that Smith penned the provided lyrics to such
tracks ripe with emotion as the title song. It is the poetry of
Edna St. Vincent Millay that Linda breathily delivers in "The Time
of the Year." Linda also sets to music the work of another poet,
Louise Bogan's "Night." Linda, a moody, dusk-toned vocalist, brightens
her pieces with tambourine and understated guitar accompaniment.
Taking on at times baroque sounds ("No 2 People"), a newly acquired
keyboard appears in place of the trusty Casio used on earlier recordings.
Way ahead of the curve, Linda began making her own 4-track recordings
inspired by 60's radio pop in 1986 and continues her work based
on that varied tradition of sounds sweet and memorable, pop and
nostalgic. (3) |
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_________________________________
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DID
YOU MISS ANY OF TOM SCHULTE'S REVIEWS?
BACK ISSUES:
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_________________________________
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Outsight
brings to light non-mainstream music, film, books, art, ideas and
opinions.
Published, somewhere, monthly since July 1991. Feel free to re-print
this article.
Ratings are (1) = :(, (5) = :)
"Don't be normal, be natural!"
Visit or Join Outsight's Web ring: http://d.webring.com/hub?ring=music1432
Outsight Radio Hours Webcasts
Sundays 6pm-8pm EST @
http://www.outsight.mu
NEW MAILING ADDRESS:
Tom 'Tearaway' Schulte,
5224 Shoreline Blvd.,
Waterford, MI 48329-1670
E-mail Outsight at: outsight@usa.net
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_________________________________
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Current
reading list:
"Teach Yourself Mathematical Groups"
"Bubblegum Rock" (Kim Cooper)
"Parliament of Whores" (P. J. O'Rourke)
"Cyberselfishness" (Paulina Borsook)
"Anna Karenina" (Tolstoy)
"Small Change: A Life of Tom Waits" (Patrick Humphries) |
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