More June Tabor thoughts

[Sean Smith]

I've been following the current thread/debate over June Tabor, and just
want to add my two cents. To be honest, I haven't heard a lot of her more
recent stuff, except on radio; I have both Silly Sisters albums, "Airs and
Graces," "A Cut Above" (her best, IMO, although the title sounds awfully
snotty) and "Abyssinians" (sp?), and I have listened to "Ashes and
Diamonds" once or twice.
I'm a bit in the middle on her. I generally like her choice of material,
and I think her singing style can really favor certain songs: "Unicorns,"
"Waly, Waly," "Scarecrow," etc. But I do find something remote about her,
and this characteristic seemed to become more prominent as she recorded
more. It was noticable, for me, in subtle ways: on "Airs..." she provided
notes, sources, etc. for the songs, which I always think is a nice way for
a recording artist to interact with the listener: here's where I got this
song, here's what I kind of think it means, and so on. But then she stopped
this practice, which is too bad, because there were some songs I WOULD have
liked a little info or comment from her on, like "Scarecrow" or "Le Roi
Renaud" (especially since I don't understand French). Admittedly, this is a
small quibble; after all, not all performers do provide these kind of notes
on albums. But with Tabor, I don't know, it just seemed to emphasize this
image of remoteness.
I don't think, however, that she is completely devoid of emotion. One
interesting example of this is "Le Roi Renaud"--I remember one reviewer
pointing out the irony that this, one of Tabor's most emotional renderings,
was a *French* song.
But there are occasions, I think, when that emotion seems muted--or, if you
will, remote. That was my problem with "Abyssinians." There were some
terrific performances, like "Scarecrow" and "I Never Thought My Love Would
Leave Me." But on the whole, it tended to put me off. And yes, I do think a
lot of her recordings have been extra heavy on the reverb; I have an image
of her standing somewhere off in a distant valley while she sings--alone,
mysterious, er, remote.

[Jailbait]

I'm not sure about all of June's releases, but I'm willing to bet that
for ANYTHING on Shanachie she may well have provided notes and they
LEFT THEM OFF!
They keep doing this. Thye put their own advertising in the fold of
the book and leave out ALL SORTS of important info...hell, Span's
Tonight's The Night Live! doen't even tell us WHO IS ON THE ALBUM!

Sorry...this is probably a flame, but it's against Shanachie Records,
not against anyone here...personally, I like June's voice, but have
never really gotten in to her recordings...I saw her on the Freedom
And Rain tour 3 times and have heard various other things...

JB
--
"1866: The start of an era of peace, prosperity, tranquility, fire...
and rocks."