Album Notes

Janet Feld writes folk songs that tackle personal and political concerns in a literate and engaging way. Almost every track expresses moral doubt or social awareness in the tried and true singer-songwriter tradition, backed by gentle, lilting acoustic guitar melodies.

Most of Feld's lyrics are about personal issues, ranging from failed romance to physical and emotional insecurity. A multitude of moral dilemmas, some as minor as a youngster's petty shoe theft (on the guilt trip-worthy "Finders Keepers"), others as vast as reckless street violence (the poignant "Dear God", not to be confused with the XTC classic), play out in fine, observational detail. In "Here We Go Again", Feld speaks out against the war in Iraq with pinpoint accuracy and clarity.

"We traded the lives / Of young men and women / For the right to be right / And when the bodies are counted / and the peace treaties signed / How long 'til we do it again?"

These are the sorts of songs you could imagine your ex-hippie, retired schoolteacher aunt humming while eating granola on her back porch -- pensive, folky, twangy tunes with earnest, pensive lyrics. In this insincere, irony-ridden world, that's certainly not a bad thing.

Jessica Gentile
Splendidmagazine.com