Lori Lieberman - Bend Like Steel

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I’ve waited quite a while for this album. Lori Lieberman’s last album, Gun Metal Sky, came out three years ago, and it was a marvel of subtle beauty. Bend Like Steel was worth the wait. This is a personal album, and the beautifully rendered musical settings here are even more intimate than last time. The basic band has Lieberman switching off between acoustic guitar and piano, plus additional acoustic, stand-up bass, and percussion. There are also cello parts on many of the songs, and an electric guitar is sometimes added with the lightest of touches. It would be a mistake to add much to this. Lieberman is a passionate singer here, but she does not raise her voice much. She often gets quieter for emotional effect where most singers would get louder. So it is remarkable how well her voice and Monty Byrom’s baritone combine on the album’s one duet number, Mr and Mrs Make-Believe. Byrom must match Lieberman’s subtlety with his own, and too few singers know how to do that.

The big surprise to me about Bend Like Steel was the content of the lyrics. Lieberman has been making music for almost 40 years, and I haven’t heard nearly all of it. But this album feels like Lieberman had some kind of a breakthrough, and years of pent up emotion came out in the writing of these songs. Lieberman says in the liner notes, “A writing streak led to the making of this CD… where the more I said, the more I felt I needed to say.” The album opens with songs of love gone wrong. If Not Now feels like a snapshot of a moment when a woman who has been isolated in an abusive relationship decides to break out. Mr and Mrs Make-Believe depicts a hollow marriage, where their acquaintances believe they are the perfect couple, but their relationship is actually loveless. Cup of Girl is one of the most heartfelt songs on an album full of them; it depicts a singer who has been manipulated, but has finally decided to take control. The song uses an extended metaphor of a recipe, and this is a device that could have failed miserably, but Lieberman nails it. As the album progresses, the emotional tone begins to shift. Now, the narrator who had been so unlucky in love begins to find the real thing. My Sister’s Boyfriend is a flashback that represents a long-sought ideal for what love should be. The relationship in the song did not endure, and there is a heart-stopping moment in the song that explains why not with one word. I don’t want to give a spoiler by saying more, but you will know the moment I mean when you hear it. That one moment sums up everything that is so right about this album. These Things is a wonderfully ironic song; after recounting all of the experiences that could have warned her off of love forever elsewhere on this album, Lieberman finds herself in this song assuring a new lover that he does not have to let his past hurts scare him away from her. And that sums up what Lieberman has taken away from all of these experiences, and what she wants the listener to take away from this album. Through it all, Lieberman never lost her faith in true love, and so, she was ready when it found her at last. Netherlands finds her in that country for the first time since 1975, and it completes a circle for her. And There’s a Harbor closes the album with an affirmation of the power of love. Lieberman didn’t write this one, but she chose the perfect song to conclude this journey.

And it is a journey. Much care has obviously gone into sequencing the songs on Bend Like Steel. This is an album that should be heard straight through in one sitting if possible. Heard this way, the album tells a story that is real, but also heartwarming in the end.

Lori Lieberman: Cup of Girl

Lori Lieberman: My Sister‘s Boyfriend

Happy Holidays

Unlike in the past two years, this year I wanted to do a holiday post just with music that I received from the artists. That netted me one Hanukkah song, and four Christmas songs. I intend no slight to my Jewish audience, (which includes me, after all). It’s not too early too send me material for next year, and I’ll try to be more balanced then. In the meantime, I offer a pause in the frenzy of the season, to recall why we’re all doing this.

Three Quarter Ale: Blood of the Maccabees

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Hanukkah is, after all, a minor holiday in the Jewish calendar. So there are many songs about the frivolous aspects of the holiday. Songs about latkes and dreydls tend to be silly or aimed strictly at kids, or both. But Three Quarter Ale goes back to the story of the holiday in Blood of the Maccabees. They remind us that Hanukkah is a celebration of the fight for freedom of religion, and that such fights usually involve the death of good people. This is presented reverently, not in a heavy handed way, and with a beautifully heartfelt performance. The album Shall We Gather By the Fire includes a few more Hanukkah songs, as well as many Christmas songs. The arrangements range from almost classical, to the folk style heard here, to even some jazzier numbers. Three Quarter Ale is a group that can do all of this well and have it make sense together. Both the reverence and the fun of the holidays are to be found on this album. There are some narrative bits between some of the songs that I found distracting, but the music is strong enough for me to forgive that.

Lori Lieberman: Daughters and Sons

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This year, Christine Lavin released Just One Angel. This is a collection of holiday songs by songwriters famous and less so. Most of the songs are originals, including both Christmas and Hanukkah, sometimes in the same song. So I could have presented another Hanukkah song, and there are some decent choices here. I could also have presented a number of other Christmas songs, including some by artists who are new to me, and who I will be seeking out and possibly presenting here in the future. But I noticed a new song by Lori Lieberman. I got my hopes up, and Lieberman did not disappoint me. The same beautiful yet delicate arranging style that I so admired on her album Gun Metal Sky is here as well. This serves a song about a mother whose children are grown and live far away. There is a hint that one or more of them may be a soldier at war. Christmas here is the time for bittersweet reunions. There may be a thousand songs on this theme, and most of them are maudlin and weepy. But Lieberman hits it just right, and the song rings completely true.

Heather Dale: I Saw Three Ships/ Song of the Ship

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Most of the songs on This Endris Night are at least 300 years old. Heather Dale, playing all of the instruments here, gives them modern arrangements but sings them in the original languages. So she sings in English, French, Latin, German, and even Huron. She also provides her own English translations of the lyrics to many of the songs in the liner notes. So this album is an impressive of linguistic talent. Dale has a fine almost operatic quality voice, and she plays keyboards, recorders, bowed psaltery, and bodhran, to name a few. She’s after a fusion of ancient and modern, and she makes it work better than most. I Saw Three Ships is familiar enough, but Dale intertwines it with the less familiar Song of the Ship. As heard here, the two songs have a conversation, with each enhancing the other. This is a wonderful piece of inspiration, and a most welcomed addition to my holiday music library.

Anne & Pete Sibley: Once in Royal David‘s City

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One of the joys of holiday albums for me is finding an old song that I’ve never heard before. Often this happens because the song must be performed in a certain way to work, and not everyone can do it. Anne and Pete Sibley take Once in Royal David’s City, and turn it into musical swaddling for the infant Jesus. There is no doubt at all what this song is about, just from the sound. The rest of the album has one original, the title track, and a selection of more familiar carols, all performed beautifully.

Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer: The Ditching Carol

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Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer were asked by a hardware store chain to participate in a holiday album by various artists that the store used as a gift for their customers. The first year went well enough that they were invited back the next two years. The result was four original songs and four readings of traditional songs. So American Noel was not originally intended to be an album, but it works quite well as one. The Ditching Carol is on of the traditional songs. It is a gentle but eloquent reminder to remember this less fortunate this holiday season. Carter and Grammer’s performance gets it perfect.

Reminders:

It‘s crunch time for Mary Bragg. She has two days left in her Kickstarter campaign, and she still needs just over $4000 as of this writing, or she gets nothing. Follow the link to see my original write-up on her campaign, and hear a song. From there, please follow the donation link, and do whatever you can.

Chris LaVancher is in better shape, He has more time and a more modest fundraising goal. Still, your help is needed.

Kim Davidson and Kristi Martel are doing this the hard way, raising the money for their albums on their own. Follow the link for a taste of their music as well.

On behalf of these artists, thank you for your gifts. And happy holidays to all.

Lori Lieberman - Gun Metal Sky

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Quite some time ago, a young woman went to a concert by a young up-and-coming songwriter and singer named Don McLean. She was so moved that she went home and wrote a poem about it. In time, the poem fell into the right hands, and became a hit song, Killing Me Softly. The young woman was Lori Lieberman.

So Lieberman is not a new artist by any means. She started recording in the early seventies, and has been on two major labels in her career. But she never came anywhere near the success that her poem enjoyed. In fact, I must admit that I had to have pointed out to me who she was when I got the chance to get this album. I must also admit that Roberta Flack’s hit is far removed from anything I would post here. But, I gave Lieberman a chance, and I’m glad I did.

The songs are a mix of originals and covers. Killing Me Softly is here, and I would group it with the covers, since Lieberman did not write the music. But Lieberman claims the covers as her own, both with her voice, and with her imaginative arrangements. The sound is intense but delicate. The acoustic guitar or piano, or sometimes both, are featured. The strings, when used, feature the cello playing of Stefanie Fite, who also helps with many of the string arrangements. The rest of the strings are just two violins, which provide a gentle cushion of sound for the cello parts to rest on. It’s a very unusual way to use strings, and it really works here. Drums, bass, and the occasional flute, clarinet, or trumpet are mixed in the background, and used for color and accent. Lieberman’s singing ranges from almost a whisper to a conversational volume; she never finds the need to raise her voice. The overall sound is subtle and beautiful.

The lyrics are of a piece. These songs consider love from many different angles. The Opposite of Love is one of those songs where the singer claims to no longer care about an old lover, but why would she make that claim unless she wanted to convince herself? It’s been done many times before, but this feels a little different. I get the feeling this relationship ended quite some time ago, and the wound is no longer raw. But there is still the pull of the old feelings.

He Needs You is a brave song. It portrays a woman who has run away from an abuser, but can still remember why she fell in love with him, and is wrestling with the urge to go back. It is a rare songwriter who has the compassion to write about this at all, and the song is even more remarkable because Lieberman manages to avoid being judgmental at all. Having known someone who was in this position, I can tell you that I could not do as well.

Bus Stop is one of the covers, and it is the song you’re thinking of. The original has always struck me as a corny romantic teen sort of song. But Lieberman reinvents it here. Suddenly, the innocent romance and the blush of first love are real. Lieberman makes it clear that she can believe in this, and therefore, so does the listener. Lieberman follows this with an original, More Than This. Here she depicts a couple whose relationship is deeper than what outsiders can see. They are no longer blind to each other’s faults, but they are still together anyway, because their love is real. This makes a kind of answer to Bus Stop, so putting the two songs together is perfect.

So love both lost and found are on display here. There is even a song of a mother’s love for her daughter, and how hard it is to let go. And then the album closes with Takes Courage. Lieberman reminds us that to love is to dare. She has shown us that sometimes we may get hurt. But we must brave, and do it again. Because when you really find love, it’s worth it. And so is this album.

Lori Lieberman: The Opposite of Love

Lori Lieberman: Bus Stop