THE BEAT
Erica Wheeler's bountiful `Harvest'
by Seth RogovoyWILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Nov. 14, 1996 -- Autumn is perhaps the most ambivalent of seasons, bringing with it the final fruits of the harvest and one last explosion of color before preparing a gray bed for winter's sleep. This natural and emotional duality is captured in all its beauty and complexity on Erica Wheeler's aptly-titled, new album, "The Harvest" (Signature Sounds), a work that should instantly propel Wheeler into the front ranks of contemporary, new- folk singer-songwriters.
Wheeler will be performing many of the songs from her new album at a CD release concert tomorrow night [ Fri., Nov. 15 ] in Room K111 at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield at 8, as part of the Birch Tree Concert Series. For more information call 413-623-5526.
"My second CD was a lot about the distance between things, and this one is a lot about where the past and the present meet," said Wheeler in a recent phone interview from her home in the burgeoning, new-folk mecca of Northampton. "Autumn is a time of taking stock of what you have and what you don't have, what you've harvested and what you've let go."
"The Harvest" includes 10 finely-crafted originals and one cover song. It is ironically a line in the album's only non-Wheeler composition that perhaps best captures the mood and theme of the new recording. "There is a darkness in my heart/The taste of hope is sweet," sings Wheeler, darkly and sweetly, on Claudia Schmidt's "Quiet Hills."
While "The Harvest" is not a bluegrass or country album, the album has a strong bluegrass/country feel to it, no doubt the influence of Grammy-nominated bluegrass artist Laurie Lewis, who produced the album and lends her fiddling skills to a number of the tracks, along with such progressive-country musicians as Darol Anger, Tom Rozum and the members of Psychograss.
"I grew up in Maryland, which is right next to West Virginia and Virginia, so I grew up hearing a lot of bluegrass, but I see the album as having a whole spectrum of influences," said Wheeler. "To me, bluegrass, blues and jazz are specialized art forms that as a folkie I don't lay claim to."
In the liner notes to "Goodnight Moon," the most devastatingly frank look at a parent-child relationship since Cat Stevens' "Father and Son," Wheeler offers a glimpse into her creative process when she refers to taking a "songwriter's snapshot" of a real-life event.
"It's being aware of moments that really touch you and make you notice them," she said. "Like today I was walking across the street and this elderly man asked me if I could help him across the street, because the cars don't stop all the time for pedestrians. That just touched me. There's moments that touch me and I'll remember them and someday they might work themselves into a song.
"I think that's part of being an artist -- trying to stay awake to things. I think all people have that in them."
Maybe all people do have the innate ability to stay awake to their surroundings. But not everyone can turn their impressions into three- minute works of art that resonate with compelling universal truths. Wheeler is one of those rare few who can.
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Spotlight 1 : Amy Rigby
"Stuck in the netherworld between bohemia and suburbia, between set lists and shopping lists" is how wife, mom and thirty-something, folk-rock singer/songwriter Amy Rigby describes herself in the liner notes to her awesome solo debut, "Diary of a Mod Housewife" (Koch). Ex- of the Shams, Last Roundup and former hubby Will Rigby of the dBs, Rigby has come up with a roots-rockin' collection of original tunes that chronicle some very '90s domestic turmoil and triumphs with sass, wit, insight and intelligence, on an album destined for critics' year-end, best-of lists. Rigby's torch-like vocals sit atop melodies that touch down in Byrds-style folk- and country-rock, with echoes of Dylan, Buddy Holly, honky-tonk, British Invasion, Motown and even pre- rock pop. She can be the queen of contemporary heartache, but she is never self-pitying. She's also a whiz with a one-liner and an astute phrasemaker: "Cup of coffee -- the only available sin," "Don't look at me in that tone of voice," "I looked -- isn't that what eyes are for?" Rigby is at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Monday, Nov. 18, at 7 in a special, free performance sponsored by WRSI.--------------
Spotlight 2 : Self
By the second cut on Self's debut album, "Subliminal Plastic Motives" (Zoo), singer/songwriter Matt Mahaffey is already singing about his "Sophomore Jinx." Mahaffey continues the theme throughout most of the CD's dozen songs, which variously rail against the very music industry that is hailing the 22-year-old as a Brian Wilson of the hip-hop/alterna-rock generation. Indeed, based on his DIY debut, which he wrote, produced, sang and played pretty much all by himself (hence the name of the group), Mahaffey is a contender to inherit the one-man-band's royal throne vacated by the artist formerly known as Prince. Self can be as tunefully melodic as Squeeze, as jazzy as Steely Dan, as grungy as Soundgarden and as clangy as Nine Inch Nails -- often all in the same song. Self warms up the crowd for Cracker at Williams College in Williamstown tonight [ Nov. 14 ] at 8.[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Nov. 14, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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