Laura Cantrell Redux


My initial thread, exposing my slavish devotion to the music of Laura Cantrell can be found here,

[URL=http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?gmusi&1136603608&read&keyw&zzlaura=cantrell]Laura Cantrell Thread[/URL]

Since then, I have continued my backward traversal of the Cantrell catalog. I can heartily recommend Cantrell's first full-length recording, "Not The Tremblin' Kind". The arrangements are more conventional - some would say accessable - than the later efforts, but the humor and beautiful voice, so purely free of anger and angst, comes through unscathed. There is more of a naievete here than on the later efforts, perhaps living in New York will do that to you. Comparisons would be to a modern, folkie, Petula Clark. Sorry, no LP here, but the UK import on Spit 'N Polish is just a bit more incisive than the domestic release on Diesel, but probably not worth the extra scratch.

Also in recent rotation is her first EP, "The Hello Recordings" on Diesel. Originally recorded for a subscription only, kind of music-of-the-month club service by They Might Be Giants these songs do not dissapoint. Again, no LP, but there is a UK release that I have not laid my sweaty hands on yet. My next purchase will be They Might Be Giants, "Apollo 18", on which she sings backup and shares the lead with the two Johns. There is also a recent EP of acoustic versions of songs from the last two albums that is only available as a download from i-tunes, but I really don't know how to download and burn it to CD from my computer, so maybe someone will take pity on me and contact me off board to get me going on this one.

If you have not had the pleasure, and you enjoy modern folk, bluegrass, or alt country, try one of these recordings; in an increasingly anxiety-ridden world they are a kick! Oh, and for you audiophiles in the room, the full-length recordings are uniformly excellent, with the EP having a less polished recorded-live-in-the-garage quality that is quite transparent as well. Happy listening.
Marty
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