Customer Reviews

The West Was Burning

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

 

 

Yes, I'm glad to have this collection of songs to listen to whenever I want. We saw Martha Scanlan perform at a Midnight Ramble in Woodstock, and her songwriting got to me. The venue ran out of her CDs that night, so I had to get it from Amazon. I remember loving one song in particular--how the words seemed to tumble down the chord, for lack of a better description. So I was so happy when that ended up being the first song on the CD--"The West Was Burning". Song after song will hook you. Her lyrics are evocative, her voice transporting, and her rhythms varied and familiar. Of course, since Levon Helm is her drummer, she had an advantage!

Every single song in this CD works: the writing is terrific, the performances exactly right, the sequence/production (thank you, Dirk Powell) so good it grows on you as you listen--it all makes a download?CD to be treasured. You listen again and again. And after that, there's Levon!

The review in "Dirty Linen" said of this CD, "The West Was Burning comes as a revelation, an instant classic and one of those rare albums that defies genre and generation." Producer Dirk Powell says in the liner notes, "She seeks and finds (and ultimately creates) work that reveals the divine where it might not have been perceived previously." That's a lot of gushing over this set.

Scanlan covers a Bob Dylan song "Went to See the Gypsy" from his 1970 album New Morning and re-creates the track with a loving vocal, "That pretty dancing girl, she could not be found; so I watched the sun come rising on that little Minnesota town." She turns in one instrumental, "Call Me Shorty," penned by Dirk Powell. The set concludes with a nice version of the traditional "Ten Thousand Charms." Of her originals, "Isabella" is a good track with its driving beat and stories of women. The opening title track is probably the very strongest with a unique fast rolling melody that accommodates the dense lyric, "On the window there are fields of wheat in Kansas that roll on forever." Levon Helm of the Band lends support on drums while his daughter Amy of Olabelle lends harmony vocals and drums. Martha's voice is one that comes across as weathered, much as the music she sings. This is a good set. Enjoy!

If you like Alice Gerrard- Joni Mitchell- you will like this album...Thank you Martha for this beautiful album!

I title my review in response to the sentimental yet thrillingly understated lyric of "Walkin'": "Ordinary is as ordinary sees / the quiet beauty in the shapes of trees and the / sky between them is an ordinary kind/ ordinary hand brushes mine, and / walking ain't nothing / walkin's just free / come on baby come walkin' / with me." Can you get more subtly sexy than that? The original songs on the album are mostly slow paced, filled with loneliness, longing, hope, and spiritual joy and hunger--all the things I look for in this kind of music, crossing old-timey, honky tonk, and hard country, rough yet exquisite and intensely imagined. The cover of Bob Dylan's "Went to see the Gypsy" is one of the best Dylan covers I've ever heard (and that includes the Byrds!)--bringing out the mystery, skepticism, and baffled indecision of Dylan's great song but with a new feel (and we can finally stop wondering if the Gypsy is Elvis or Jimi). The playing is first-rate by everyone, some very well known (Dirk Powell, Levon and Amy Helm ). I cannot recommend this CD highly enough. Think of Lucinda Williams in a meditative mood (as she sings "Side of the Road") crossed with Iris DeMent, and if you can't get enough, check out the group "Reeltime Travelers," with whom she wrote and sang the remarkable "Little Bird of Heaven." (P.S.: Powell has an absorbing piece in the insert, but his comment about the Interstate highways is ill considered--beneath Martha and his lovely music, or his own evocative prose).

The title song on this album, "The West Was Burning," will haunt you in a way that is better than good. Martha Scanlan's voice and the lyrics of her songs touch a moody nerve that only the rarest of music does; this is good stuff. She is getting known now for her new songs, the Tongue River Stories [...], but this album is really amazing. Thank you Martha!

Okay. Thanks to the ability to sample an album on Amazon, we all have the power to peruse an album, and ultimately make our own decision, rather than having to rest solely on the (often, mostly) biased opinions of others.

So here is my experience with Martha Scanlon.

I saw her perform live at a local Portland festival long before I ever heard any of her recordings. (Pickathon, 2010, to be precise).

What can I say. She absolutely charmed me. Her concert was intimate, tender, and absolutely beautiful.

I didn't buy a single album of hers for over a year... but here's the thing: her songs HAUNTED me for months. Her lyrics are, well, lyrical, sumptuous, and lovely.
The reviewer that stated otherwise is either cursed with perfect pitch, and so, hates everything that isn't classical, or really needs to find a hobby. (I am a classically trained singer, and I noted no intonation issues. Seriously.)

Ultimately, you can decide for yourself.
But for myself, I was charmed first by her live performance, and I think that should speak for itself in respect to Martha Scanlon's artistry. Love, love, love her. So there. ;)

Give me a break people. The woman has no voice, couldn't hold a tune in a shower, her lyrics are trite and childish and she is just plain bad. A friend from Portland, Or who claimed to have known her gave me this album and I gave it back. Are we getting this culturally barren?