NATALIE MERCHANT
LEAVE YOUR SLEEP
APRIL 9, 2010
As i write this review there is so much going on around me and in my head but the most important thing is the compact disc i have rolling in my ears.
A triple threat of folk just begins oozing from the first track “Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience” from Natalie Merchants latest cd called leave your sleep. There are moments on disc one that pushes your emotions to the highest highs then brings you to a mellow calm that i have not heard since Bruce Springsteen released “we shall overcome: The Seeger Sessions.”
As it flows into disc two i am overcome with the feeling of being in a class i took at Buffalo State College called Jazz/Rock. The class took us from minstrel troupes right into the beginnings of rock n roll. Nothing could have come easier to me with all the useless musical information i already had stored in my head. What i did not know was how much i still needed to learn, thank you professor Chuck Mancuso.
This is Natalie’s fifth release since going solo with "Tigerlily" in 1995. This is a concept album based on British and American poetry. Natalie’s soft and caring personality comes across in the structure of the music and the gracefulness that is found in songs like “the sleepy giant and the land of nod .“
The janitor’s boy has a jazzy upbeat feel that was found in St. Louis and New Orleans as ragtime turned jazz. I cant help picturing a time of cold and rain and dark streets where the local pub would have this new music call “jass” blasting out of the doors as they are propped wide open because the band was heating up the joint. This is before “jass” became “jazz.”
“Griselda” touches on great blues/rock combination that makes you feel like jamming with the band, even if you can not play an instrument. A real guitar solo fits right in with the rhythm section although short it pulls the song together. The fade out sax is icing on the song.
If you are a folkie junkie then your collection should not be without it. Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez along with Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot will all be proud of what Natalie Merchant has done inside the walls of leave your sleep.
11/29/10
RUSTY
4/9/10