Customer Reviews

Diary of a Mod Housewife

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I cannot believe that I am the first person to review this wonderful cd. But as a Manhanattanite and having stumbled in from a club at 3am (early here, but I am, lol, getting old at 35), I just put on this cd. And fell in love with this wonderful music all over again. On a personal note, "Down Side of Love" got me through a horrendous love affair (the kind you drag all your friends out to dank bars and whine over beer; this of course after you've bored them with tales of how you have LA LA DA DEE DAH found true love, unlike the rest of the poor down-trodden world). Ah, sigh, get this album, will ya? And tell Amy I would like to buy her a beer.

My review title is a line from her song "Sad Tale", but Amy Rigby's choice of "Diary Of A Mod Housewife" is even better for this collection. These are the songs of a (then) 30-something rocker mom and divorcee as she looks backward and forward at her life.

Rigby has an interesting history. She was born in Pittsburgh, but relocated to New York in her late teens. In the 80's she was with a band called the Last Roundup, and then The Shams - an all female folk pop trio. She made some good connections. The Shams only album, "Quilt", was produced by Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group - and was an early release for the alt-country label Matador. Married to drummer Will Rigby of The dB's, she had kids and settled down in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section.

This 1996 solo debut is produced by Elliot Easton of The Cars. He does a great job, but this doesn't sound anything like his band. Like her husband and his group, Amy was an East Coast-er enamored of West Coast sounds. At different times this record evokes the music of The Byrds, The Mamas and The Papas, and The Lovin' Spoonful. On some songs Rigby displays the sassy, flippant attitude of Nancy Sinatra.

Amy's duet with John Wesley Harding on "Beer & Kisses" would've been perfect for Nancy and Lee Hazlewood. "20 Questions" resembles the latter duo's "Jackson", or Nancy's "These Boots Are Made For Walking". In both songs Rigby's addressing her man in a no-nonsense manner. She had split from Will Rigby by this time, but it couldn't have been too bitter - he plays here on a couple tracks.

I love The Mamas and The Papas, and Easton captures their glorious sound on two songs. "The Good Girls" is the highlight of the whole CD, and should've been a hit single. It barrels along with the same soaring harmonies as one of M & P's faster hits like "I Saw Her Again Last Night", while the album closer "We're Stronger Than That" is more similar to their slower "Dream A Little Dream Of Me".

"Down Side Of Love" and "Just Someone I Had In Mind" would suit the Everly Brothers, and show her country/pop affinity to great advantage. Indeed, in 1999 she moved to Nashville to pitch songs. In 2006 she moved to France with her singer boyfriend Wreckless Eric, and they recently married.

Amy Rigby has since released other good albums, but this one will always be my favorite. It's perfect in every way, and was one of the most fun and enjoyable records of the 90's.

I saw Amy Rigby tonight at the South Street Seaport in NYC. Under occasional strong rain that scattered the two or three hundred in attendance to cover, she did a fourteen or fifteen song set with the same irreverence, intelligence, vulnerability, and resilience that marks each of her albums. I'm still partial to this first one, for it includes at least a half dozen memorable slices of bittersweet life, both single and married. It concludes with We're Stronger Than That, a slightly off-key hymn to a struggling relationship that, she concludes, is worth keeping despite all its flaws. Before then, she dishes up Time for Me to Come Down, the very country flavored Beer and Kisses, Down Side of Love (left off her best of collection, 18 Again. Bad choice.), Knapsack, Just Someone I Had in Mind, and Don't Break the Heart (ditto on 18 Again). A great writer and observer ("That tingling feeling when you're first holding hands/Gives way to dealing with a list of demands." "We lived on beer and kisses/All hopped up on love and foam."), Rigby can also be a formidable rocker, here with a country edge, harder on some of her later CDs. She belongs in anyone's collection.

I caught "Time for Me to Come Down" just as I got into the parking lot at work. Fortunately, I was little late already and had nothing to lose. I had to wait one more song to hear the DJ tell me it was Amy Rigby's. I laughed at the lyrics, and this song rocks very well. It amazes me that songs this good can be so hard to find. The rest of the album has it's charms but please, wizards out there, tell me why "Time for Me to Come Down" came and went with barely a ripple?

Amy Rigby is a talented singer songwriter and Diary of a Mod Housewife is indisputable proof. Funny and insightful lyrics are combined with catchy instrumentation to make this album a must have. If you are transitioning from the young and single lifestyle to the married with children phase this album might help make the journey more bearable. Don't miss the chance to pop this in the CD player, roll the car window down and sing along loudly as you carpool to pick the kids up from school, soccer practice or the mall.

I happened to hear "Cynically Yours" from Amy Rigby's latest CD, "The Sugar Tree", and it just blew me away. I was hooked immediately. She's funny, scathing, and she ROCKS! No sweet folkie is Amy, although her songs are great to sing along with. Play "Don't Look at Me in That Tone of Voice", and just try to sit still. Buy all of her CDs for yourself, and then buy more for your friends - you'll make the world a better place!

Personalizing the political for a bohemia that coexists oh so neatly with structural underemployment, thinking harder about marriage than a dozen Nashville homilizers, the ex-Sham leaves the comforts of amateurism for an ex-Car and some El Lay roots-rockers, throwing her voice around in the process. All the ones you notice at first--the Berryesque "20 Questions," the chartworthy "Beer and Kisses," the lovelorn "Knapsack," and the thematic "The Good Girls"--were laid down in California. But the ones you don't notice you remember, including the five where she returns to reliable locals like Tony Maimone, Doug Wygal, and her hub, who in his real-life version even gets to bang things on a couple of songs. Concept album of the year. (Grade: A) - Robert Christgau, robertchristgau.com

by Jeff Lindholm , Dirty Linen

Amy Rigby, Diary of a Mod Housewife

Rigby's provided the soundtrack for all the mod housewives, women who're trying to figure out how to stay out all night rockin' and then get the kids off to school. Guitar in hand, she reveals tales of beer and kisses on the couch, that cute guy at the bookstore, and asks all the hard questions that she's no longer afraid to ask, like 'When do we start getting old?' The album ends with "We're Stronger Than That." That, of course, is "fairy tales, diaper pails, lack of heat, urge to cheat, shattered hopes, tired jokes." There's a country ache in her voice that's backed by a strong, new wavish band featuring members of The Cars, They Might Be Giants and Yo La Tango. This diary holds together many different tales to brilliantly illuminate the live of mod housewife Rigby, producing a true concept album.

Amy Rigby is amazing! Her lyrics are hearfelt and honest and her music is a wonderful mix of rock, country and acoustic styles.

You can really "move into" these songs, and feel what they're all about.

Check this out; you won't be sorry.