A beautiful, moving tribute
author: Jim Haile
I remember some professor in college telling me that artists were the ‘antennae of society’, with special sensitivities to ontological ‘vibrations’ rippling through our culture. He said their job was to use their gifts to translate these wavelets into an art form with which we all could understand and identify.
Stacy Kray is a San Francisco musician/producer who has collected 14 original songs from California independent songwriters focusing on their experiences and feelings surrounding the events of September 11, 2001. She has succeeded in creating a stunning, moving tribute to those who perished, those who became heroes and those they left behind. And in doing so, she’s helped us all identify with the conflicting, confusing feelings and anxiety we’ve all felt since then.
This work baits you from the start with the haunting bagpipes, snare and ostinato piano of Natasha Miller’s ‘Eleventh of September”, sets the hook with Austin Willacy’s beautiful ‘red, white and blue’ and Wendy Beckman’s “You never know”, lands you on the boat with Kray’s own, “They traded the World” and knocks you out with the unusual, contra-prosody of “The Super Bad Report” by KC Bowman.
The CD is as varied as all our experiences of that day. But one thing is sure; listening to this CD captures the feel of that time far better watching CNN or reading a newspaper. Buy this incredible CD.
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author: Stone Holmes
The music on the record achieves an artistic sensibility in matching the deep pain of victims with the sympathy of distant observers. Through intensely personal stories of raw emotional experience, breakout performances by unknown artists make you wonder what else they’ve done. The pain is so real you almost feel bad loving the music.
Opening with a striking funereal bagpipe intro, Natasha Miller’s Eleventh of September speaks from the voice of a child who has lost his father, set against a jagged piano melody evocative of Tori Amos’ best work. Austin Willacy’s Red White and Blue showcases a brilliant vocal talent, some deft fret work, and rich lyricism (“I’m blue, red and white but mostly blue”), while Brad Wilcox’s World Trembles has an instantly accessible acoustic guitar rhythm and a killer hook. Lines like “Illusions we shed like burned skin/ As we stand on the edge looking in” from Stacy Kray’s own contribution They Traded The World, capture the feelings of many Americans frightened by their own complacency.
Like Picasso’s Guernica, artwork inspired by tragedy is sometimes hard to look at. But the songs on this record, with their unflinching examination of loss, compel you to listen and, more importantly, think. Isn’t that what art is all about?
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