Steve Snelling
Perfect Strangers
© 2002 Steve Snelling (783707499222)
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Pop for grownups. Joni Mitchell meets Ben Folds.
tracks
- 1 Daniel
- 2 This Can't Be My World
- 3 Faces on the Train
- 4 Precious Vessels
- 5 Postcards from Diane
- 6 If Only...
- 7 Perfect Strangers
- 8 But for the Likes of Linda Barry
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He's been called "a great jazz player with an amazing pop sensibility." Experienced performing virtually every style of Western music, this Oregon native is defining his own creative niche.
Teaming up with two modern pop and jazz virtuosos - drummer Mark Raynes and bassist Eric Thorin - the trio draw from their shared experience in numerous musical settings to weave an evocative texture of rich ballads and refreshing pop compositions.
These eight songs share a common theme of "otherness," beginning with the haunting and heartbreaking portrait of a violent, disabled teen, "Daniel," and concluding with "But for the Likes of Lynda Barry," an indigo-hued whimsy on the solace found in newspaper comics.
All of these songs have their genesis in real events, but Steve's literate and intelligent lyrics transform them from mere reminiscences into moving personal journals.
Some involve difficult stories, as in the title cut's universal hunger for love, or the rebuke to the harsh lessons we unwittingly teach our children in "Precious Vessels." But these thorny subjects are wrapped in tender melodies and lush harmonies - this is a beautiful work of tender melancholia, but manages to be gently inspiring.
"I don't mind telling a rough story over a really uplifting musical bed," he explains, "writing something that makes your brain go, 'ouch', but your soul responds to the music like, 'oh... mommy's arms.'"
Some of his many influences emerge directly from Joni Mitchell's bittersweet lyrical imagery, Mose Allison's wistful tone, the intimacy of Bill Evans' ballads and Sting's soaring vocal laments. Steve started playing piano at the age of three and his surprising breadth of musical experience comes from what he describes as, "about a zillion bands, from psychedelic garage to full-on symphonic mayhem." He has performed with such jazz luminaries as Larry Coryell, Clark Terry, Sonny Stitt, Bud Shank, Lenny White and John Faddis, and with other artists as diverse as Molly Brown, Annie Marie Moss, the Platters, Billy Tolles and Guitar Shorty. Steve has shared the stage with artists ranging from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Junior Brown to Terence Blanchard.
Steve lives in San Francisco, performing and teaching privately throughout the Bay area. Photos of the artist, along with music, reviews, scheduling and booking information can be found on the artist's website, www.stevesnelling.com.
Insights to the Songs on Perfect Strangers
Daniel
The most intense job I ever had brought me into contact with some amazing young people dealing with overwhelming life challenges. At times heartbreaking and harrowing, the experience taught me that there is no line, on this side of which reside the “normal” people, and on the other, the “abnormal.” We are all in this together. One young man in particular evoked a unique drama around this point. For the sake of this recording, I call him, “Daniel.”
This Can’t Be My World
Almost everybody feels some kind of distance from the world, has at sometime stood on the edge of a canyon, or looked up under the night sky and cried, “I’m down here!” This is from what I call “the before time,” when there were decades of utter darkness. I’m still thankful for that cop in the snow bank. (Wasn’t too happy about the straight jacket though.)
Faces on the Train
A rainy Portland day like any other, but on this trip into town it seemed I was sharing the ride with a car full of characters from a Jim Jarmusch film. A bit surreal, but also, disturbingly typical.
Precious Vessels
A companion piece to “Faces.” Kids are these little information sponges: they take in everything, including the garbage. Through their actions, people will continually teach that killing and violence and hatred and greed are admirable values – then when things go wrong, turn around and wonder, “Gee, how did that happen?” Lunacy.
Postcards from Diane
One flip-side of “no news is good news,” is that sometimes, “all news is bad news” - a point illustrated daily in our disaster and mayhem glutted media. Even the best poetry about horror is still horrific. When I was living in the tiny Colorado mining town of Rico, my friend Diane showed me her collection of postcards folks had sent from all corners of the earth, notes from visitors grateful for the special beauty found in our sleepy mountain hamlet. This song I’ve dedicated to Diane, who always helps me keep it real when the news just drags ya’ down.
If Only...
Coffee house musings on the mildly sad boredom of the disaffected when they shoot you that, “What’r you lookin’ at!” glare. The song will have to do ‘cause, otherwise, I’m playin’ it close to the vest, Jim.
Perfect Strangers
Growing up, the real pain of being in love was not being able to tell anybody – not even my lover. I have to chuckle at these mopey open-mic dilettantes, always kvetching about the pain of romance, or the “dangers of falling in love”. For me, the real danger of falling in love was getting my ass kicked. But still, a lot of people have told me they can identify with this story. It’s not really about polarity: it’s about the desire for honest intimacy.
But for the Likes of Lynda Barry
This song contains some really sweet piano phrasings, and borrows from my classical background a bit. As for the lyrics, it's another instance where my exposure to the media was just getting to me. The papers are all full of lies and fashion, and it seems the only truth is in the comics. Ernie Pook’s Comeek, like Joni’s sweet laments, came along at just the right time to lift my heart. God bless Marliss and Maybonne.
reviews
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Powerful from the heart music!
author: Solar KaleI've known Steve for several years and was truly impressed with his work on this CD. The song 'Daniel' reminds me of the time I worked in a group home in Southern Oregon and the title song 'Perfect Strangers' gives me something to compare my own straight suburban lifestyle to. I can't wait for Steve's next release - in fact, I DEMAND IT!!
Dreamy, keen-witted meditations on love and life
author: Vesna KovachSnelling's velvety tenor glides through these eight intensely personal meditations on life and love, alienation and interface. His dreamy piano wafts cozily, delightfully, along ridges and vales of jazz chord changes. This musical setting provides enlivening contrast to Snelling's razor-sharp wordplay and rhyme, his explorations of the depths to which the human spirit can plunge -- "I threw my goddamn TV in the brush/that showed the broken bodies when the students' dreams were crushed/beneath the tanks for asking more/than crusts of bread and such" -- and its heights: "...a world where no one ever hurts/but...mothers giving birth." (Both from "Postcards from Diane") The imagery is evocative and useful, with wordplay that's heartfelt and clever and yet not jejeune: consider "faces of children stained with fear." (From "Faces On The Train") Piano and lyrics ocassionaly intersect with gleeful intention, as when a staccato chord repeats under each quick syllable of the word "jittery" in the line "Punks and violence junkies, jittery and proud...." ("Faces On The Train." In other words, Snelling isn't just baring his soul while playing exquisitely styled piano; he's having fun, too.
Terrific Lyrics backed by a Terrific Voice
author: Paul LangleyI've had the CD now for several days now and am really enjoying it. The lyrics and Steve's voice are what I most enjoy about the CD and especially track #5 "Postcards from Diane" which is my favorite track. I’m very drawn to a song's lyrics and I am always trying to reconcile my disregard for TV and newspapers with my need to be informed of what's going on in the real world that's actually important (not just PR and "noise"). It's a tough balancing act as "Postcards from Diane" exemplifies. If you find yourself drawn to introspection I think you will like this album too. Tracks #8 Perfect Strangers and #1 Daniel are also among my favorite tracks. Looking forward to more releases by this great artist.
STEVE SNELLING'S "PERFECT STRANGERS"
author: Jed RyanSTEVE SNELLING'S "PERFECT STANGERS" A resident of Colorado, Steve Snelling is a singer/songwriter who wrote, arranged, and produced all of the eight songs on "Perfect Strangers", his debut CD. There are many aspects of "Perfect Strangers" that stand out. The lyrics, for starters, will impress and provoke the listener. Snelling has a unique ability to take his observations about the world-- and on "Perfect Strangers", it IS a cruel world-- and setting it to music which expertly matches the frank emotions it inspires. The lyrics also strike us as being intensely personal. It's not difficult to imagine that many of the stories on "Perfect Strangers" were inspired by real people, events, or experiences in Snelling's life. Sure enough, a note on the CD states: "All of these tunes, to varying degrees, are fictionalized acounts of real events. Names may or may not have been changed to protect the indifferent". In addition to the musical craftmanship and lyrics, it's perhaps Steve Snelling's voice that makes the biggest impact. There's a seemingly innate vulnerability and honesty in his voice: an envied vocal gift that can't be created. There's also an intense yearning quality that comes across in the dreamy, almost ethereal melodies of "This Can't Be My World" and "If Only". While Snelling writes and sings about subjects that are squarely in the realm of adult territority, and delivers the music with great sophistication, we get hints that there's still a wide-eyed child not too deep below the surface of his skin. Perhaps no more apparently does his come through than in the title track of the CD, "Perfect Strangers": ("I learned to kiss from a boy named Mark but we never kissed at school; We didn't court and we didn't spark and we didn't break the rules; One night when I cried out 'I love you best of all'; I saw his eyes grow wide and I watched his heart grow small; And it wasn't long before he never called.") It's a heartbreaking song about the challenges of unrequeited first love... which, as some of us know all too well, is magnified at least tenfold when you're a gay boy. In the song, Snelling conveys those emotions with no less conviction than if we were observing his tears firsthand in an empty junior high auditorium. The first track on "Perfect Strangers" is a song called "Daniel", a song ostensiably about an autistic young man. Songs about the mentally challenged generally tend to eschew any realness, much less negativity, in favor of being overly saccharine. But "Daniel", with lyrics like "When Daniel sails around the courtyard, arms wide open; He navigates his secret world alone; And just about the time I think I know him; He bites the hand that feeds him; And lashes out at shadows still unknown." expertly conveys the frustration of both the mentally challenged as well as those who care about them. It's indeed a curious choice for the opening track of the CD. Yet it's also the most delicately complex and beautiful track on "Perfect Strangers", with a haunting underlying melody and various musical intricacies throughout. Snelling explores other difficult subjects-- the anomie of his fellow man in "Faces on the Train", and the desensitization of our youth in "Precious Vessels" ("And if guns don't kill and religions heal; And bombs are being built for peace; What's it matter if our children die for oil, or dope, or the price of coffee beans; Or just because some stranger liked his sneakers.") Needless to say, this is some rather heavy stuff-- an observation that would be validated by none other that the artist himself, who has stated "'Perfect Strangers' reflects where I was at that particular time of life". Does this mean that we can possibly expect a different (read: happier) mood on Steve Snelling's second CD? The real treat of "Perfect Strangers" arrives with "Postcards from Diane", a refeshing, exhilerating track which is bolstered largely by Snelling's flawless piano playing and some uninhibited, free-flowing vocal delivery. The song, without departing too much from the indigo-toned color of the rest of the CD, has the same uplifting effect as the titular postcards from his friend that he sings about. Snelling boasts a Masters Degree in Classical Piano Performance, as well as extensive experience in many musical genres. Indeed, his music does defy simple classification, even though with his debut CD, he has already carved out something of his own niche with his unique, self-styled sound. "Perfect Strangers" is easy listening for the thinking man-- with an edge.
Amazing songwriting talent
author: chrisThere are some fantastically written jazz-chord driven songs here, especially the absolutely brilliant second half of the CD. A kind of middle ground of Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright. If you like the samples I highly suggest grabbing the album.
Musically, lyrically and emotionally at the top of the list.
author: StephenHaunting piano-driven music that will capture you, and make you think.
author: JD Doyle, producer Queer Music HeritageThe lyrics on Steve Snelling's new CD, 'Perfect Strangers,' evoke a variety of moods, from haunting to playful, but manage to be intelligent without drifting into being arty. They capture you but never stray too far a sensibility of life with which we can identify. Pour all this over his piano-driven arrangements, his soulful voice, and his strong jazz and classical background, and you get really interesting melodies that take unexpected turns, and then guide you home. -- JD Doyle, Producer of Queer Music Heritage and Co-Producer of AudioFile, heard on This Way Out