Customer Reviews

Live: Working Without a Net

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I've enjoyed some great 2 CD live sets such as Bonnie Raitt's "Road Tested," Laura Nyro's "The Loom's Desire" and the James Taylor "Live" set. Janis Ian's "Working Without A Net" ranks right up with the best. First of all, a prerequisite for me, the sound quality is excellent. In the excellent notes in the booklet, she details how this was recorded on two-track, not multi-tracked and edited and cleaned up in the studio. What we hear is what happened live.

From the opening drums on "This Train Still Runs" and the train whistle blowing, we can tell we're in for a great bash. "Fly Too High" was not one I was familiar with, but it's great jazzy rendition written with Giorgio Moroder makes me hit repeat. The hits "Jesse," "Stars," & "Society's Child" shimmer like familiar jewels in new settings. The humor songs "Boots Like Emmy Lou's" & "Cosmopolitan Girl" are great fun. "Honor Them All" which I first became acquainted with on the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers CD works well as recorded in Japan. Janis talks about feeling sad when listening to "Silly Habits" because she injured her hand & will never play piano again as she did that night in Holland. The CD concludes with the wacked out version of "These Boots Were Made for Walking" which is great fun.

Janis writes, "The relationship between performer & audience at a live show is fascinating, energizing, amazing. A good audience feeds you, makes you want to exceed your best. And a good performance feeds the audience, making them feel that you're speaking to them directly." Janis indeed accomplishes this on "Working Without A Net." She & Oh Boy Records have picked some blockbuster performances from her many live tapes. Bravo!

Stop reading these reviews and order this CD! If Janis isn't coming to your town, this is the next best thing to seeing her live. She is authentic, warm, funny and amazingly gifted.

Her songs have a social consciousness without being preachy. Who do you think paved the way for Suzanne Vega, Alanis Morisette, and the rest of those female singer-songwriters? Janis wrote the book on great writing. She knows how to weave a lyric that lingers for days around your heart.

This is a woman whose had an amazing 40 year career and shows no sign of slowing down. With age usually comes wisdom. Janis was wise beyond her years as a teenager. I think she has many great songs left to write, but this CD gives you a great overview of her music.

You walk into her show wondering how you'll be entertained by a four foot nothing middle aged Jewish lesbian. Buy the CD and you'll understand. JANIS ROCKS!

Janis Ian has long been one of music's best kept secrets. She and many other artists of her generation, are a dying breed of singer songwriters, who continue to release top notch material, but go unnoticed, as record labels continue to promote their visual Barbie dolls, and give little money to promote talent from the past. "Working Without A Net", is a pure live disc, without any studio re-workings, so what you get is the concert as it happened. Recorded in various parts of the the world, in locations, like Japan, Europe and the States, This cd proves to be an absolute delight. Tunes like "At Seventeen", "Society's Child" and "Jesse", all sound great and were her biggest hits. The good news, is if you are only vaguely familiar with Janis and her music, you get to hear a great cross section of her lifes work. She can be both serious and comical during a performance, as evident by her songs "Breaking Silence" and "Cosmopolitan Girl". Janis writes songs about many topics that can shoot straight to the heart just as her biggest hit "At Seventeen", did during the mid-seventies. She sings the truth, and that is what makes her so special in my eyes. A great performer has just put out a great live disc, that deserves recognition.

This 2CD set is brand new(2003)and the live 2 track recordings are from 1990 -2003. The excellently recorded songs are from over 30 yrs of a fine collection of the supurb songs most written by Janis herself. These songs take you all the way back to her first hit "Society's Child" when she was 14 years old. Excellent Sound, Unbeatable Singing, and No Waste of Track Room, both CDs are loaded with real treasure. What more can be said ! For the person that does not know much about Janis Ian buy this set, it has most of her famous songs and it's a great place to start ! "Enjoy"

With "Working Without a Net" Janis proves without a doubt, she is one of the most dynamic singer/songwriter's performing today. The songs contained on this double live set present some of her most beautiful and arresting songs. For fans of Janis', you can't live without it. For folks less familiar with her work, check this out! You won't be disappointed. In addition to the tremendous song selctions, the quailty of these live recordings is outstanding. You actually feel as if you are present at one of the various venues, staring up at stage and being totally enthralled.

This work is now an essential element of any Janis Ian collection. In fact, if you ever were a Janis Ian fan and only have one or two albums, then buying this Live CD set is a must. It is a compilation of performances from roughly the last 10 years but includes all the Janis Ian favorites from Society's Child onwards, as well a good sampling of her critically acclaimed work of recent years. The performances were recorded live to 2 track without any fancy studio production, so the album truly captures that "live" atmosphere and besides, Ian is such a consumate performer, she doesn't need any studio enhancements to make her sound wondeful. Personally, I think Janis Ian is one of the best live performers in the business and contrary to popular myth she is anything but depressing in concert - always mixing the occasional heartfelt ballad with plenty of upbeat numbers as well as a good dose of levity as demonstrated with the songs "Cosmopolitan Girl" and "Boots Like Emmylou's". Go out and buy this album now folks; you won't regret it!

This is the ultimate live retrospective of Janis Ian's career. For those of us who ever hoped that "Remember, Live in Japan and Australia" would ever go to CD, this is an even better set of music. Janis and her fabulous assistant were clever enough to stand back and let the producers pick which songs to include out of hundreds of choices! The result is spectacular! Some very funny introductions for some of the cuts by Janis herself. This 2 CD set is a must have for high volume Janis Ian collecting fans like me, or for someone who just wants a really great example of the body of her work. It's very affordable as well. Have you checked the prices of 2 CD sets lately? Buy this one!

I've been a Janis Ian fan since the mid-70s. This is an awesome record. Her voice and enthusiasm still sounds pure and excellent, in fact never better. It's a great retrospective of her career. A must for fans. A must for new fans who want to familiarize themselves with her catalog.

Challenging effort from this veteran. Let's face it, Janis' diction and wordplay has always been wonderful, and on this live disc she has never sounded better. Don't let this live Janis show pass you by! Pop this CD in and trance around your living room. Allow this creator of sonorous song, musician, painter of sonic sound take you on her musicial journey.

Unlike other live CD's, this double-CD set is really "live" - recorded direct to 2-track, without edits. And isn't it wonderful to really be able to sit in on a Janis Ian concert? Ian makes her feelings about downloading and home taping known with her choice of the final track, her own version of "These Boots Are Made For Walking", which was recorded on minidisc by a fan sitting next to the mix board!
If you loath the RIAA policies, you should support Janis Ian, and read the article "The Internet Debacle" on her website at www.janisian.com!!!!