WIDE

Gabrielle | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 14, 2005)
• Original Release Date: April 2, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: MudMusic
• ASIN: B0009GW2TW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,709 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Gabrielle’s songs reflect her unique voice and individuality as well as the richness of early influences ranging from Joni Mitchell, Delta Blues & Bob Dylan. A powerful vocalist as well as a songwriter, Gabrielle began sparkling to audience attention in 1996 when she was asked to front the NYC popular blues cover-band, Blooze Junction, which featured a 7-piece backup band and a large NYC following. In 1998 she started her own original music project and all the pieces came together. That year, her song “Line of Your Leg” (dreamtown) won the Spree National Songwriting Contest and “Threw It All Away” (dreamtown) took an honorable mention in the Great American Songwriting Contest. In 2000 she self-produced her debut release “dreamtown” which received critical acclaim and was voted the 3rd best unsigned CD of the year by Music Connection Magazine. Gabrielle toured the east coast playing in clubs, colleges and music festivals. She was a featured artist at the 2001 Bethlehem New Musik Festival, the National Academy of Popular Music’s 38th Songwriter’s Hall of Fame showcase, and a featured solo performer at the 2001 Nashville New Music Conference. 2002 brought the release of a solo live EP “Live and On Her Own” which found itself on the airwaves of acoustic music shows, college radio, NPR as well as a bunch of internet radio stations. Gabrielle started experimenting with new musicians and formed a trio with Nicholas D’Amato (Poppa Chubby, Spiraling) on bass and Clancy (Billy Poster, Lisa St. Ann) on percussion. With these new musician’s backing her up a new sound evolved and a songwriting surge. Clancy, Nick and Gabrielle hit the studio in June of 2004 and “WIDE” was born. Already the CD is eliciting comparisons to Peter Gabriel and Patty Griffin drawing comment for its deep emotional authenticity and strikingly beautiful musical arrangements. Gabrielle grew up in New York in the culturally driven upper west side. The product of an eccentric multi talented inventor (dad) and a commonsensical mother, she was always encouraged to follow whatever creative urge hit her at any moment. For most of her young life it was visual art, but Gabrielle could always be found singing in her school choir. Her musical talent was recognized early on. She was a featured singer on several of world renown cantor Paul Zim’s Hebrew records, a featured soprano representing the United States at Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar festival and in St. Patrick’s cathedral international holiday celebration. At 16 she was given a guitar, learned to play by ear and with in a year was performing at legendary places as the Speakeasy and Sun Mountain Café. Like one of her main influences, Joni Mitchell, Gabrielle is a visual artist, and has alternated her exploration of music with painting and sculpture. She continues to bridge the worlds of music and visual! arts, and has been acknowledged not only for her fine arts, but also for her extraordinary CD designs for other musical artists.

Product Description

WIDE Produced by Clancy Mixed by Dave Swanson (Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews) Contributing musicians include: Julian Coryell (Carole King, Aimee Mann), Nicholas D’Amato (Poppa Chubby, Spiraling), Ben Butler (Jonatha Brooke, Dar Williams), David Cook (Justin Timerblake, American Idol), Shane Shanahan (YoYo Ma, Phillip Glass), Anja Wood (Rod Stewart, Rufus Wainwright) Acclaimed New York City recording artist Gabrielle, has finished her long awaited sophomore release “wide”, a collection of original lyric driven songs surrounded by an eclectic mix of world beats and fresh rhythmic textures, with intoxicating hints of folk, rock and blues.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exceptional Talent, Realized But Unrecognized, April 13, 2006

By 

M. Berferlitz (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: WIDE (Audio CD)

Kill me now. I'm not sure I want to live in a musical world in which music this good is lost. So if it's that good, why haven't you heard of Gabrielle Gewirtz? I'm glad you asked.

We live in a world of musical sysiphus, ny friend, and artists whose music does not have acceptable backing or grass roots momentum are pretty much lost to the public. But of course, you know this. Better more Springsteen or Stones than the unknown. And so talent lies unnoticed but by a lucky few. In this case, I consider myself lucky.

Gabrielle combines the best of what she has in "Wide", not the least of which is considerable talent. She is just branching out from her folk and gospel roots to light jazz and the combination is captivating. To pull it off, she invited some of her favorite musicians to participate, including percussionist/electronics whiz Clancy who produced and bassist-extraordinaire Nicholas d'Amato. The result is a beautifully recorded but extremely personal Gabrielle album... the best of both worlds, shall we say.

She plays acoustic guitar, as do most 'folkies', and she sings very well, but the key here is songwriting. She has a way of fitting her voice to various moods of the pieces which can at times be quite disarming. Take, for instance, "She Smiles", an uplifting rocker with very slight jazz tinge in which voices fill the chorus so that her vocals become controlled, but free. Or "No Sign No Sound", which is at one and the same time introspective ballad and choogling rocker. Or "Melina" and "Whose Life" where her voice floats over simple but extremely apt and well done arrangements, and which are superb three in the morning when you're crashing songs. There is a bit of Kate Bush there, and maybe Joni Mitchell, and possibly Sandy Denny and a thousand other fine singer/songwriters, but the music is all Gabrielle Gewirtz (except for the excellent pop jazz of "I Know You Know" and the plagiarized but extremely well done arrangement of Cindy Lauper's "Time After Time") and it won't take more than a few listens to strike home. Gabrielle has the talent. All she needs is the audience.

Taking a chance is tough, I know, as expensive as music is these days, but Gabrielle is worth taking a chance on. "Wide" could easily be the next decade's lost great album, though it is worth much more. It is worth being a hit, if I might be so bold. In my head, it already is.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Find, October 5, 2007

By 

Suz Willie "Suzanne" (Morristown, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: WIDE (Audio CD)

I recently saw Gabrielle perform at a local festival and was stopped in my tracks by her music. It was ethereal and ecclectic. I was blown away by the harmonic synergy between her voice and the steely guitar sounds. I purchased this CD and have never been more pleased with an impulse buy. I highly recommend it.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars sorry, June 26, 2007

By 

Cory J. Varzari (Lethbridge, AB, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: WIDE (Audio CD)

sorry, but i have nothing good to say about this c.d. i was very disappointed with it.