Customer Reviews

Shortstop

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

she has such a beautyful and stering voice...i wish i could put her in alittle box and bring her with me every place i go.....she really helps to calm my bad moods and strengthen my dreams....would love to meet her and sit in her world of music and laughter....thank you so much for this album and all your others...

Sara Hickman's second album for Elektra Records shows the grooming that her label obviously thought her worthy of at the time. Producer David Kershenbaum (Tracy Chapman, Joe Jackson) was brought in to give "Shortstop" the full digital buff job, and Sara was given a big budget sound on the likes of "I Couldn't Help Myself" in the hopes of Adult Contemporary and VH1 airplay. (I still have the videos from her appearances on Johnny Carson's and Pat Sajak's late shows.)

The end result was her most commercially successful album. And while "I Couldn't Help Myself" did get a great deal of radio play, it is the song least indicative of Sara's talents. She is a great songwriter, given to spurts of impish humor (the title track), genuine optimism ("If We Sent Our Hearts Over Now," written about a death row inmate and a Hostage from the Iranian Crisis - remember that?), and passion with flair ("Salvador," about Dali). The instrumentation is mostly acoustic and includes a few cohorts from Joni Mitchell's bands, all given lots of place to let their passages breathe.

"Shortstop" is an album that also holds a special place in my collection and heart. Sara is the only person to ever name check me on her album. You'll see Tim at WAFL mentioned (because I programmed "Equal Scary People" way back when you could still get away with choosing what songs you played as a DJ). So you have to understand that, when it comes to Sara, I am a very prejudiced fan. If even with that admittance you may be slightly disinclined to add this to your library, I still say GET THIS CD. You can use my email address and thank me later.

"Shortstop" was simply a stunning release by Sara Hickman, with power and maturity only hinted at on her wonderful debut, "Equal Scary People." The pop of "I Couldn't Help Myself," assisted by some really nice sax work, should have been a smash hit on radio, and "The Very Thing," a wry song about relationships between men and women, also richly deserved airplay. One has to wonder if this album would have fared better had it been released years later, after other folk-based artists like Shawn Colvin broke through to get airplay. I have found Sara most interesting in that she writes about subjects few other songwriters touch. For instance, the steel-stringed acoustic piece "Aurora" takes a powerful look at the issue of aging via a visit to an elderly family member, who cannot speak but taps her toes to the beat of Sara's guitar. "Don't Give Up" is an uplifting song offering encouragement to those who have given up on life. It ALWAYS leaves me with a smile. I simply love to play the song "Too Fast" for friends, Sara's tale of a not-so-shy woman who takes sexual matters into her own hands. The album opens with a nice, uptempo, acoustic love song, "In the Fields," before moving into the title tune, another of Sara's impressionistic pieces that hits the mark. All in all, album that left me puzzled: How could an album this musically rich get such poor response from radio programmers?

I have owned this CD for many years. I bought it after seeing her on Austin City Limits. I have played it many times and it never gets old, it is very well crafted, emotional to the max and just amazing songwriting coupled with an amazing voice.

I found this album a few years ago in my local library and listened to it several times. I've been keeping my eye out for it ever since. Hickman likes to have fun with her music. And while her lyrics often deal with love and relationship, she tends to shift the focus in ways that are both imaginitive and refreshing. Her imagery unusual and poignant -- quirky in a way that is all her own. Most memorable are the songs "Too Fast" and "Claim on My Heart." The first is about an after-work rendezvous between playful couple in love (or is it merely lust). The second is a first-person narrative by a woman that would like to give her lover everything, but hopes that he will settle "for a claim on her heart." It's a song that risks being sappy, but instead comes across as being sincere.

"Salvador," "Don't Give Up," and "Aurora" are the best tracks on this CD. It would be interesting to see Hickman in concert nowadays and see if she has the same kind of sound, or if she has changed a lot. I recently discovered this CD after it lay dormant for ten years. It's just as fresh today! Hickman has a very original sound, and I wish more modern performers had the courage to have their own sound rather than parroting others.

"Equally Scary People" is also a good CD of early Hickman. You can't miss with this one either!! :)

This is a great (if short) album. I bought a new one to replace the one I burned out after years of playing (and less-than-careful handling...)

The most popular album (I think) in Sara's discography. From a song like 'Aurora' about a musical visit to an invalid in a hospital, to 'Too Fast' (where a lady has, ahem, an interlude with the popsicle guy), to the imagery of 'In The Fields', this is a must for any fan of thoughtful, beautiful music...

I first heard Sara Hickman on a now defunct jazz/new age station out of Racine back in 1991 when they were giving rotation to the beautiful jazzy ballad, "I Couldn't Help Myself." Falling in love instantly with its steamy sax-driven appeal and her strong Ronstadt-resemblant voice, I rushed out to the record store to find the cd almost instantly. On first listen to the entire Shortstop album, I was nominally disappointed to find that there was no other song quite like it on the disc, but something kept me coming back to it over and over again. Thank God I love all kinds of music, because Shortstop is the kind of versatile you want. Not only can she write great songs in various styles, but she is the lyrical sort of poet that is missing too often in today's singer/songwriters. Along with the wonderful Rebecca Pidgeon, Hickman is something of a throwback to the romantic writing styles of Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, Carly Simon, and Dan Fogelberg. As I have stated before, she has a hearty pitch-perfect voice like Linda Ronstadt, yet is more subdued than the former when she sings softly. She goes from one extreme to the other with the ease of an audible acrobat, and her vocal ability is worthy of the utmost respect.

That said, she is quite the prolific writer, and you know that the majority of her songs come from the heart. Personal experience is always a songwriter's strongest gift, and she puts it all out in a colorfully arranged display for the world to witness. With a painter's pallette of country-rock, folk, jazz, adult contemporary pop, some neo-classical, and a touch of metal, she has a lot of medium to use for her musical canvas.

You can't help but wonder who the love long-lost country rocker "In the Fields" is about, and you laugh as you listen to the title track with its sweet clarinet accompaniment as she speaks of her sister and laments being called a lunatic by the mother of a small baby outside a cookie store. "Aurora" is obviously about an older relative with aphasia who she would visit and play her songs to. Very moving if you happen to have a similar situation, which I once did. "The Very Thing" is quite the catchy country-pop song and relatable to anyone in a troubled relationship.

While easily the most catchy, dreamy and romantic song on the album, "I Couldn't Help Myself" reeks of formula jazz-pop, but with Gerald Albright accompanying her on that sexy, wailing sax, you really CAN'T help yourself but fall in love with it.

There is a bit of preaching on the latin flavored "If We Sent Our Hearts Over Now," but at least it isn't telling you to do anything but have compassion for your enemies, which isn't easy to do. "Would it ease the pain? Would it stop the fighting?" Who knows, but we can dream, can't we?

"Salvador," a piece of pretty neo-classical poetry about the artist Salvador Dali, complete with a boys' chorus is a bit far-reaching and somewhat self-indulgent, yet the simple, stripped down arrangement is beautiful and dramatically sad without managing to be cloying. Nice save.

I used to play the hopping folk-jazzy "Don't Give Up" when having to take my algebra tests over in college, and it seemed to help! "Don't give up, you just started. You've come so far in such a short, short time."

An absolute favorite has to be the fun and humorous "Too Fast," a little ditty about a first date gone bad between a racy woman and a somewhat questionable man with hilariously funny lyrics:

"Back at the motel he mentions his job is going well
She unbraids her hair, and for the ten thousandth times asks him again, 'What...is
it you do there?"
He says, 'I work at the popsicle plant. I pour dye in the number 5 machine
I am responsible for turning popsicles green!'

Claim on my heart has a sweet French ballad quality to it, complete with a corny accordion solo, but the lyrics are sweet and dreamy: "If you'll just bear with me for a moment, I'm sure that we can find all that we once held as true. It's in a crevice embedded in my heart, and it's solid as a stone."

"Take it Like a Man" turns everything up a few notches as Sara employs an all-woman backup band to play a blistering little rocker about how women are actually tougher than men in a more graceful way--well, except for "if you called the queen a name she'd set your tongue on fire!" It is a delightfully funny song that pokes fun at both sexes, and I think guys will get a kick out of it too.

Hold on, though; this song may be listed as the last track, but there is a cute little unlisted ditty at the end that I call "The Little Blue Man," a silly little folk ditty about a little blue man from outer space she uses to fix up her garden and home until he escapes from his cage. I love singing along with this one, because it's just so addictively silly.

Did I mention the stellar, powerful range on this woman? If the voice is a fierce instrument, I'd tell you not to mess with Hickman. She is a genuine, multi-talented artist, and Shortstop is a fantastic showcase for her rich array of gifts. If you like Ronstadt, Dan Fogelberg, Joni Mitchell, or any of the singer/songwriters of the 70s country-folk-rock era and never heard of Sara Hickman, purchase this album. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Released in 1990, this is Sara Hickman's second album. It is 55 minutes long and the sound quality is pretty good, especially for a CD released in 1990.

I don't think that this is as good as her first album, Equal Scary People.

On this album, she veers away from the Austin-style country tinged music and tries a bunch of different styles. She tries a jazz flavored number and a popish number and neither of them come off very well. I find some of the songs fairly bland, like Claim on My Heart. I'm not a huge country fan, and I like to see artists branch out and try new stuff. It is just that some people are good at some things and some people are good at others.

But there are some great songs on this album, like Aurora, Too Fast and Take it Like a Man. I think that these songs are better than anything on Equal Scary People. I just don't think that the rest of the songs provide good support.

Best Tracks: Too Fast, Take It Like A Man, I Couldn't Help Myself

I found Shortstop to be missing something (what I can't say), and a little preachy.

I'm a huge Sara Hickman fan, and this album certainly didn't turn me away from her music, but I found it lacking the uniqueness of her other releases.

Although, there are a number of songs that shine forth, and this album is worthy of a listen.