A short record and a mid-week drive to the ‘burbs means I am ready to review this next record after only a couple of days.
Disc 1578 is…. Captain Wild Horse (Rides the Heart of Tomorrow)
Artist: Shelley Short
Year of Release: 2006
What’s up with the Cover? Rarely has an album cover and an album title bore such little resemblance to one another. There are no horses here, nor romantic notions of riding the Heart of Tomorrow (which sounds like it would be more at home on a Dio record.
Instead, we have a small-town backyard, and what I think is the clothesline. Maybe Captain Wild Horse is a child’s toy that can “fly” when affixed to the laundry line. That is until mom comes out and yells “If you wreck that clothesline futzing with it you’re going to regret it!” I speak from experience.
In slightly related news, I miss the scratchy, wind-blown towels that used to come off the clothesline. Said no one, ever.
How I Came To Know It: I heard a song off of Shelley Short’s 2017 release “Pacific City” and decided to seek her out. I could find that album easily (more on that later) but when I was in Portland a number of years ago, I found a used copy of this one in a local record store. It was a very low price so even though it wasn’t the title I knew, I took a rider on it. Get it, a rider on Captain Wild Horse? Get it? Man, I crack myself up…
How It Stacks Up: I have two Shelley Short albums. “Captain Wild Horse” is the weaker of the two.
Ratings: 3 stars
After listening to Linda Ronstadt for my last review, any singer was liable to sound a bit thin, and so it was that I had hard time getting into the twee indie folk sound of Shelley Short. It wasn’t Shelley’s fault – she’s great – just bad timing.
Shelley Short’s voice is particularly light and gentle, good for songs that trip and traipse along, and she has a good sensibility to keep her songwriting within that wheelhouse. These are songs that would be well-suited for one of those concerts where it is basically in some person’s overly large drawing room. Ideally a big house rented by a bunch of roomies, some of whom are in the band, as opposed to some big house of a rich dude who just wanted background music for their dinner party.
Because “Captain Wild Horse” is such a subtle and quietly pretty album, being in the background does not suit it. It requires your full attention but doesn’t always do a great job of commanding it.
One of the reasons for this is the old timey nature of the playing. These songs are not complicated, and their strength is in their simplicity. You fall into the natural sway of the experience, rather than marvel at the musicianship or melodic innovation of it all.
It didn’t help that most of my listening was in the car, where the growl of the engine (my car growls a bit more than most) threatened to wash out the subtle nuance of the record. As soon as I got it home and started giving it a listen on headphones, I remembered why I liked it so much. When it is up in your earholes to the exclusion of all other distractions, it is like a lovely stroll down a country lane. Unassuming, and absentminded to the point of being almost meditative.
Do I love the xylophone sound on “Lupine Manner”? I would say no, but that sing-song style of hoping from note to note like a frog on lily pads is a Shelley Short specialty, and so you forgive the cuteness of it all.
One of the best tunes is “Goodbye Old Morning” where the same twirling whimsy has just the right amount of gravitas (just a dash) to ground you into the song’s charm. It is also one of Short’s best vocal performances, as she once again deftly swaps phrasing and joy in place of power.
The final track on the record is “Wild Wild Horses” and no, it is not a Rolling Stones cover. It has a heavy cello tone underneath it that made my car’s door reverberate uncomfortably. It was a bit disconcerting but given how the car engine had been thrumming over the earlier tracks, felt like fair play.
If you prefer your music to be like a dozen roses in a bouquet, delivered by some guy in a limousine, this record may not be for you. But if you like a single daisy, blooming against the side of an old cedar-shingle house, it just might be your thing. Hard to notice and a little quiet, but pretty when you take the time to stoop down and take a closer look.
Best tracks: Like Anything It’s Small, Sweet Heart Said, Goodbye Old Morning
No comments:
Post a Comment