Album Lounge: Mockingbird
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In aesthetic practice and appreciation my decided preference has always been for the artisan as opposed to the virtuoso, for the lyric or meditative as opposed to the dramatic or rhetorical. So with, for example, an art form like opera, although there are musical passages and arias that are lyrical and beautiful, essentially it is a dramatic art and its stars are virtuosi not craftsmen. While the virtuosi in their performance say to us "Look at me doing this incredibly di... MORE
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The first thing I love about this song is the percussiveness of its instrumentation. It almost feels like an acapella song; it has that feeling of space in it. The instruments feel like a counterpoint to the vocal. There is also the poignancy of those vocals and of the history the song is rooted in. In September 1854, the first "orphan train" carried 46 homeless children from New York City to far off homes to become laborers in the pioneer West. It was the first step in w... MORE
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I do admire Gillian Welch's bare branch scrapings; she sings like what that would feel like against your eye but of course it's the ear of your soul that gets abraded. And her acoustic guitar playing is miraculous. But I love the lusher surround of the Moorer cover, especially the fiddle but also the strong rhythm section. And of course Moorer has the more conventionally beautiful voice. The song's clearly a gem and to my ears Moorer has given it a lovely setting.
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from The Mockingbird by Randall Jarrell On the willow's highest branch, monopolizingDay and night, cheeping, squeaking, soaring,The mockingbird is imitating life. Hour by hour, fighting hardTo make the world his own, he swoopedOn thrushes, thrashers, jays, and chicadees - - At noon he drove away a big black cat. Now, in the moonlight, he sits here and sings.A thrush is singing, then a thrasher, then a jay - -Then, all at once, a cat begins meowing.A mockingbird can ... MORE
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Having only a passing acquaintance with Simone's work, I am probably not the best judge in the matter, but to my mind, Moorer's performance more than holds its own. She definitely brings the soul. Those that likes this one might also want to check her cover of Ma Rainey's "Daddy, Goodbye Blues" which I can't help but hear in the context of Moorer's family tragedy.
