Customer Reviews

Wingdale Community Singers

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

 

 

WOW! Wow! Wow!!! I truly wonder that I am the first person to review this outstanding CD. It was released almost 2 months ago! Does anyone out there know about "The Wingdale Community Singers" yet? Granted, their name is not exactly a household word...but it will be soon. Fortunately, (for me, some folks may feel otherwise), I live in Manhattan and I recently got to hear this fantastic group live - in a bookstore, of all places! But that makes sense given the nature of the group's three members, who just happen to hail from Brooklyn. Author Rick Moody, ("The Ice Storm," Purple America," etc.), recently joined folk-rock singers/songwriters Hannah Marcus and David Grubbs. They have created an extraordinary urban folk sound, with gritty, sometimes poignant, occasionally cynical, often humorous lyrics, and soulful country/bluegrass melodies. These are songs about life in Brooklyn - bike shop employees, stray dogs, subway tracks, transvestites, ("Fish Net Stockings"), pawn shops and store front arson, and local rats on the tracks - the 4-legged kind with tails!! "Holy Virgin Star" is just plain beautiful. "Bigger Ocean" and ""Family Plot, Mayfield Kentucky," are sad, bleak ballads, but are among my favorite cuts.

If you're thinking "huh?" Take a listen to some of the sample tracks.

Marcus's magnificent vocals are the album's centerpiece - her's is a pure clear sound, lush and totally feminine. Grubbs' baritone and plaintive acoustic guitar, along with his musical arrangements, present the songs' subjects in a vulnerable and appealing light. In fact Grubbs provides most of the minimalist instrumentation - keyboards, piano, banjo along with guitar. The songwriting is extraordinary, and this level of excellence is the element which most unites the 15 tracks. Literary folk/rock - so they say it's called. Hannah Marcus comments, tongue in cheek: "Yeah, we're surfing the tide of literary rock until it gives out. I'm hoping to send my seven adopted children of all races to good schools all over the world." Now, I don't know what "lit rock" is...but I know good when I hear it!

Rick Moody, (I am a major fan of his writing - novels and short stories), is quoted: "I guess I wrote most of the lyrics on the Wingdales album. Probably three-quarters of the lyrics. Hannah and Dave are both great lyricists, as you can see on their self-composed numbers. But I had an idea about how to make lyrics in the old-timey sort of way: Really fast, with few revisions, and without looking back. So we wrote lyrics kind of like we were out in the woods, but we wrote them about Brooklyn and people we knew. Well, except for Dave's song, which is about Kentucky."

Hannah, Rick and David are joined by Tony Maimone, Rebecca Moore, Kurt Hoffman, and many others who helped to make this the wonderful CD it is. Again, listen to some of the samples. I play this album a lot, and highly recommend it!

JANA

Even if the Wingdale Community Singers didn't include a famous author as one of its members, its CD debut would still be recognized as intelligent, truly accessible, urban folk music from dimly lit streets and alleys of Brooklyn, NY. The lyrics and music conjur up an almost surreal urban realm realized in pictures by the likes of Gregory Crewdson, Bruce Gilden and Jeff Mermelstein, among others. Though blessed with superb lyrics from eminent American writer Rick Moody, the main reason to acquire this album is to hear the excellent vocal harmonies of and the superb melodies composed by Rick's partners; songwriters and musicians Hannah Marcus and David Grubbs. These are musicians who have their mutual affection for traditional bluegrass, folk and country music molded into something truly memorable that is the best body of work I have heard so far coming from Brooklyn, New York (One that isn't even connected at all to Brooklyn's over-hyped, rather mediocre, country music scene; a harsh assessment which I have heard from Brooklyn residents who are professional classical musicians.).

Even if the Wingdale Community Singers didn't include a famous author as one of its members, its CD debut would still be recognized as intelligent, truly accessible, urban folk music from dimly lit streets and alleys of Brooklyn, NY. The lyrics and music conjur up an almost surreal urban realm realized in pictures by the likes of Gregory Crewdson, Bruce Gilden and Jeff Mermelstein, among others. Though blessed with superb lyrics from eminent American writer Rick Moody, the main reason to acquire this album is to hear the excellent vocal harmonies of and the superb melodies composed by Rick's partners; songwriters and musicians Hannah Marcus and David Grubbs. These are musicians who have their mutual affection for traditional bluegrass, folk and country music molded into something truly memorable that is the best body of work I have heard so far coming from Brooklyn, New York (One that isn't even connected at all to Brooklyn's over-hyped, rather mediocre, country music scene; a harsh assessment which I have heard from Brooklyn residents who are professional classical musicians.).

I've had this album for about three years - got it on the strength of "Dog in Winter" heard on Folk Alley radio. I liked it reasonably well, and played it occasionally.

Last week I had to take a long drive and brought the album with me. In the silence and lack of distraction I heard the album more clearly, and realized that it was far better than I'd thought ... and I'd thought it was OK.

There's three things going on for me. One's the lyrics, easily lost in a noisy world. This is first class poetry, over and over.

The second's musical lyricism. There's almost no slickness in the album, the vocals and instrumentals are understated, casual, almost dry ... both in the production and affect senses of the word. So you have to listen close. And when you do, they're nearly, casually, perfect.

Winding up with a sense of peoples lives. Little dirty dogs with pure white feet, finding a body in the park. Immigrants who lose daughters to the urban unknown; send sons to Yale. Bike shop boys living their lives in spite of the landlord, with the aspect of a crow. Rich stuff, but low key, low key.

I love this album.

Nope. Sorry, but I am just not as rapturous as fellow reviewers about the Wingdale's debut. There's nothing amiss with the set, and the songs are fine enough. But none of them are memorable. I admit I was lured to sample the product having swooned over Moody's, 'Purple America' and this is simply not a distinguished showcase of his writing skills. While his best writing compares favourably with contemporary American literature, the music herein drowns amongst hundreds of similar aspirants. It's a capable outfit, without sounding any bells.