MusicViews - Music as a Bloodstream

I could imagine Emmylou Harris recording any of their songs -- “Forgive Me,” “Hard Time”, “Night Falls”, “Pink Peonies”. Sheila’s songs are passionate and insightful and she conveys them with a voice full of power and emotion. I thought I knew where the melody of a song was headed and then it went somewhere else. more

Meteora is a gem of a folk trio, comprised of Will Brown, Jim Loney and Kat Logan. Right off the bat, their main asset is their excellent voices. From the first note of their first song, “Small Brown Bird”,... their three-part harmony moved me to tears. more

He delivered song after song in tight arrangements with an interesting relay going on between alternating drummers Seth Kearns and Charles C. Gagne, and alternating backup singers, Amanda Gervasi, Monique Barrett, Megan Jo Wilson and Sara Hallie Richardson. more

He piqued my interest when he said that during a period of writer’s block, he found an old book of poetry and decided to set some poems to music. more

She seemed at home on the stage, comfortable in her own skin, precise and practiced on the guitar and possessed a voice that couldn't be pigeon-holed. more

The Caravan of Thieves blasted off with “I’m Gonna Eat Ya” (which they could have written for Deborah Harry) and “Love Made a Monster Out of Me”. Then we were swimming in the Talking Heads’, “Psycho Killer”. Adorable lead guy, Fuzz, flirted and cajoled the audience into hissing like snakes and snapping our fingers. Soon, we were all a-snakin’ and a-snappin’! more

The music was entrancing, particularly a piece named for the mountain for which it was written, Bai-Taiga. That composition was orchestral in depth and breadth, taking us beyond time and space and nearly inducing us into a shamanic journey. more

I was swept away from the first note and heard myself let out a big sigh after the first song. The tension was leaving me and I was all ears and heart, awaiting the onslaught of more beauty. more

Those low notes held me captive and fascinated. I wanted to lie down on them -- they made me think of a soft bed. I realized that as a singer, she catches my attention and helps me hear things on more than one level. more

An overview of the MusicViews column and a note about submissions. more