From Amazon.com
my new favorite
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: this is such a good cd. i heard one song before purchasing and was willing to buy it for that one song only but i am more than pleased with everything else. the words wash over you and the sound amplifies the words without distracting. heaven.
*****Five Stars All The Way Home*****
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: In a day and age when "Artist Development" has been tossed out with the bath water by major labels, Ferron has done her own development and the majors be damned. Sadly not enough people have become acquainted with such a tour de force in the singer songwriter genre.
I have listened to Ferron's work all the way back to Lucy Records when I once lived in B.C. Canada (a very long time ago). I had been in a serious auto accident and was in a total body cast for seven months forced to lie in bed with a new gadget called a "Walkman". Since then I can say that this artist has never turned out a poor performance. Some of her recordings were poorly engineered and so her work suffered from a sonic point of view, but as for her creativity, I would be hard pressed to find another singer songwriter so honest and uncompromising. "Boulder" is no disappointment to the craft and credit of a gifted and brilliant story teller.
Like her peers, Ferron has continued to forge ahead in a hostile world of contemporary music. The telling difference about this woman's work is that unlike Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins or Joan Baez, Ferron has always been seen as a regional Canadian artist and not as a major record seller in the U.S. How sad for the Yankees down here, how very sad indeed.
A Boulder Step in a New Direction
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: Here is a love-project from friends and cohorts of the respected Canadian poet-songwriter. Favorite selections from Ferron's repertoire are recast with help from Amy Ray & Emily Sailers of The Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, Samantha Parton (Be Good Tanyas), J.D. Sampson (Le Tigre), Lyndell Montgomery (Ember Swift band), Tina G (God-des and She), Ulali, Julie Wolf, and midwifed by Bitch through Short Story Records. Dale Schiff of justout.com described the intimate recording quality: "It sounds as if the musicians were all at Ferron's house hanging their feet off of her porch." Base tracks were recorded live at Ferron's Michigan artists retreat, The Fen Poetry & Peace Camp, and Bitch took the files on the road to seamlessly add background and supporting material from a bevy of guest musicians. The packaging is beautifully designed by Galen and Ferron's Ojibwa Foremothers, with a 10-page lyrics booklet. The title refers back to Ferron's first saved song, Misty Mountain (1970) and the poignant memorate Girl on a Road (1995): "If music be a boulder, let me carry it a long while...Let the life be somewhat settled/With the life that song has made...In some story quickly written during a long forgotten time/As a girl on a road." Bitch's metaphorical road tune, Highway is covered by Ferron on Track 9, that opens and closes with the nightsound of crickets heard at The Fen. Ferron's rich timbre adds meaningful layers of experience to the lyrics, answered by Bitch singing "Yeah. Long live the Sparkly Queen." J.D. Sampson co-produced with Bitch the closing tune, In The Meantime, sampling the opening time-tracking piano keys by Daryl Havers from the original version on the Turning into Beautiful CD. With a woosh, Sampson changes that paternal resolution song to a head-bobbing dance number, recalling Ferron's wisecrack that "Suddenly our depression is a celebration." Join these folk in enjoying the latest release from the esteemed and beloved contemporary songcrafter Ferron.
Good To Hear Her Work With New Artist
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: I've been a long time fan because she is so good with a lyric. Working with a new producer, Bitch, and a variety of great artist we get remakes of favorites and new work as well. I don't get a few of the changes but most of them work and Ferron always tells a great story.
lost in Austin
Album Rating: (3 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: For an old-school Ferron fan like me, this is a challenging album.
The most successful cuts, for such types, are the completely new ones; they're a clear continuation of what Ferron has been doing lately.
It's harder to adjust to the newer versions of the classics. Partly it's just hard to hear iconic pieces redone. Of these, "Misty Mountain" was the easiest for me to understand. Ferron speaks the lyrics, almost as an elder recounting a vision quest -- complete with vocals by Ulali. It's eerie, but not, to me, completely effective. I can imagine it in an intimate setting as being very compelling, though. The earlier version was a young woman's song, raw and hard. It's a challenging re-imagining, to hear the same material from an elder's view.
In the reworkings of "Our Purpose Here" and "Shadows on a Dime" I have to say I'm lost. Partly it's the different phrasings -- a tendency to speed up towards the end of line, or to do the lyrics at a much faster tempo. I don't get the point.
Well, like I say, I'm a bit lost.
Purchases
1 Souvenir
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