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Music Review: Pieta Brown: All Or One (Red House Records)
I'm about to break two of my personal little “rules to live by”. The first is I'm listening to a new album all the way through, which I had sort of given up on. (And its the second time this week...Jakob Dylan was given a thorough listening on Easter morning.) The other thing is I'm writing an actual album review which I absolutely hate to do. Why? Not only is it a lot of work, but there's pressure to be accurate about the details and you have to have completed at least one mail order course on how to be a critic of which I have not and my shortcomings will most likely become evident to you the reader. Rather quickly.
First of all....if you have no clue as to who Pieta is, or for that matter Bo Ramsey, stop reading this and go figure it out. I'll help out a little and if you click this red thing it'll take you to some sort of biographical information. I'll wait for you.
Ok. One and All is the name of her latest album that came out this week and when I downloaded it this morning from Amazon they charged me just $6.99. That's an amazing bargain for what is hands down her finest release in what already is a strong body of work. The down side to downloading it was that I didn't get any liner notes or recording information other than song titles, so I'm flying blind here with just my ears to guide me. (Attention Red House: Help out the blogging community and make some more information (other than the PR fluff/stuff) about your releases available on the website.)
Produced by Pieta and Bo, I find the sound and the rhythm of this to be much more relaxed than anything prior. While I had thought that last year's Shimmer would have been a breakthrough with Don Was producing, One and All is (pardon the pun) the one. For if this is not the collection that grabs your attention, you just won't get her. While her earlier work made me envision a woman with a dark and restless soul (now doesn't that sound like a stupid critic-like thing to suggest without having ever met her?), these songs are downright joyous and uplifting.
This would normally be the part of the review where you'd expect the reviewer to excerpt some lyrics and make stupid comments. Something on the order of “Pieta uses Bo's cascading guitar arpeggios as a counterpoint to her lyrical poetry that represent the hopefulness she's expressing from her heart” or some other babble. Man...I'm barely able to take the time to listen to everything she's saying and also to pick out the tasteful instrumentation that they layered on here while typing. But here's something that might be something for you deeper intellectuals to ponder...the songs are shorter than a lot of her earlier ones. Could it be she's learned to send a message quicker, is in a hurry to get somewhere or her past year on the road with Bo has sharpened her focus? Either way, we win.
I see that Pieta is going out on a 28 city tour opening for Mark Knopfler which is probably good for her monetarily. There's a large casino just a few miles down the road from my house and they'll be playing there next week. For a moment I was excited and planned to go, but now I'm not so sure. This is not an artist I want to see for the first time surrounded by a papered house of high rollin' folk there to see the sultan of swing. We'll see.
But that aside, I love Pieta Brown and Bo, and One and All gives pause to my notion that the full length album has become an artifact. If they keep putting out stuff like this, I might start listening again. It's a brilliant addition to this artist's catalog and I recommend it to all.
Post Script: Here's a video done by photographer (and internet friend) Sandy Dyas you might enjoy:
First of all....if you have no clue as to who Pieta is, or for that matter Bo Ramsey, stop reading this and go figure it out. I'll help out a little and if you click this red thing it'll take you to some sort of biographical information. I'll wait for you.
Ok. One and All is the name of her latest album that came out this week and when I downloaded it this morning from Amazon they charged me just $6.99. That's an amazing bargain for what is hands down her finest release in what already is a strong body of work. The down side to downloading it was that I didn't get any liner notes or recording information other than song titles, so I'm flying blind here with just my ears to guide me. (Attention Red House: Help out the blogging community and make some more information (other than the PR fluff/stuff) about your releases available on the website.)
Produced by Pieta and Bo, I find the sound and the rhythm of this to be much more relaxed than anything prior. While I had thought that last year's Shimmer would have been a breakthrough with Don Was producing, One and All is (pardon the pun) the one. For if this is not the collection that grabs your attention, you just won't get her. While her earlier work made me envision a woman with a dark and restless soul (now doesn't that sound like a stupid critic-like thing to suggest without having ever met her?), these songs are downright joyous and uplifting.
This would normally be the part of the review where you'd expect the reviewer to excerpt some lyrics and make stupid comments. Something on the order of “Pieta uses Bo's cascading guitar arpeggios as a counterpoint to her lyrical poetry that represent the hopefulness she's expressing from her heart” or some other babble. Man...I'm barely able to take the time to listen to everything she's saying and also to pick out the tasteful instrumentation that they layered on here while typing. But here's something that might be something for you deeper intellectuals to ponder...the songs are shorter than a lot of her earlier ones. Could it be she's learned to send a message quicker, is in a hurry to get somewhere or her past year on the road with Bo has sharpened her focus? Either way, we win.
I see that Pieta is going out on a 28 city tour opening for Mark Knopfler which is probably good for her monetarily. There's a large casino just a few miles down the road from my house and they'll be playing there next week. For a moment I was excited and planned to go, but now I'm not so sure. This is not an artist I want to see for the first time surrounded by a papered house of high rollin' folk there to see the sultan of swing. We'll see.
But that aside, I love Pieta Brown and Bo, and One and All gives pause to my notion that the full length album has become an artifact. If they keep putting out stuff like this, I might start listening again. It's a brilliant addition to this artist's catalog and I recommend it to all.
Post Script: Here's a video done by photographer (and internet friend) Sandy Dyas you might enjoy:
Tags: all, and, bo, brown, house, one, pieta, ramsey, records, red
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Comment by TenLayers on April 7, 2010 at 7:09pm - Cool. I'll pick up both Shimmer and One and All. I've see her a couple times when she's rolled through San Francisco. A good solid performer.
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Comment by Kenny C on April 7, 2010 at 8:05pm - "Remember The Sun" One of me favorite songs of hers.. Thanks for the reminder, I been waiting for this release.. I just downloaded from album from Amazon - apparently the price has gone up a bit but who cares.. She's got such a great voice and delivery and I really like her lyrics. Her partnership with Bo Ramsey is very complimentary; I do believe she contributed lyrics to his latest offering "Fragile" (Great CD), especially on my favorite song "Can't Sleep". I've never seen her live.. When you wrote she's opening for Knopfler I knew I dropped the ball on a great opportunity.. sure enough.. the DC show at the Warner Theratre is sold out May 2nd.. I'm pissed.. OK scalpers.. you win..
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Comment by Grant Alden on April 8, 2010 at 3:40am - You don't listen to entire albums? What fun is that?
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Comment by Jeff Gilbert on April 8, 2010 at 6:18am - Pieta's new one is indeed a gem. Anything involving Bo Ramsey is required listening. I love all of Pieta's work, as well as her father's. A couple of years ago, I attended one of the best concerts ever . . . Pieta as opening act; Greg as the "main act;" Bo accompanying both.
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Comment by Easy Ed on April 8, 2010 at 8:55am - I took literary license with that "don't listen to entire albums anymore" thing. The reality is that I listen to probably 5-7 new ones per week and sample another dozen. But the bulk of my listening throughout the day is letting individual songs flow through randomly. For me at this stage in my life, I find it much more enjoyable to be surprised when hearing something come up, and it also allows me to listen to many artists/songs that I wouldn't have necessarily chosen if left to my own devices. And frankly I've gotten bored with this notion that an artist's work should be listened to as a pre-determined collection of songs. An album was created as both a carrier and and a marketing vehicle and is not the holy grail. It's starting to feel a bit like an antique since today an artist can write a song at noon, record it at one, tinker and mix by two and upload it to their website by four for all of us to hear. I understand that we're not fully at that point yet, but I expect it to be and cloud technology will get us there sooner rather than later.
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Comment by Sandra Dyas on April 8, 2010 at 3:35pm - This is it. It is the record I love of Pieta's because her voice comes through but the music is still there - and layered - beautifully. I had a hard time choosing which cuts to favor when I made the video - the entire record shines. I agree with ED - "For if this is not the collection that grabs your attention, you just won't get her."
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Comment by Steve on April 13, 2010 at 12:07pm -
thanks Easy Ed for adding to the "rapidly declining record retail landscape" by getting your
"amazing bargain" via Amazon and then complaining about the lack of recording information!
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Comment by Easy Ed on April 13, 2010 at 1:45pm
- Sorry Steve...but I'm ninety miles from a record store that might even consider to stock this title, so that doesn't make it easy. And I don't control what Amazon sold it to me for. But for whatever I paid, it still would have been nice to get some info.
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Comment by Kenny C on April 17, 2010 at 10:02am
- Delete Comment I'll buy her CD when I see her at Knopfler's show in Philly.. plenty of seats left for that show.. I guess philly is into hip hop.. whatever.. .. wow.. I missed the Pieta's postscript video above.. very cool
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Comment by Sandra Dyas on April 17, 2010 at 2:16pm
- Kenny C - thank you much for the comment on the video --- i need more work like this...
Comment
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Created by No Depression Feb 17, 2009 at 9:06pm. Last updated by No Depression Aug 25.
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