February 2001 Parasol Newsletter

Issue #39

We have so many releases to highlight I have no room to rant. Check out the Coming Soon section on page 2; Green Pajamas, Bettie Serveert and Club 8! And I swear, in addition to the aforementioned, we have a new Adam Schmitt song on the forthcoming Parasol's Sweet 16, Volume 3.

SPOTLIGHT

Fonda-The Strange and the Familiar CD
(AHA!-021) $11.00

George Usher-Days of Plenty CD
(PAR-CD-056) $10.00

On his second album for Parasol, this New Yorker exhibits why Tower Pulse once described Usher as "one of America's foremost and unsung pop auteurs." While avoiding the "concept album" tag, Usher's latest work Days of Plenty does use the mellotron-driven, psychedelic title track as its spiritual center, around which the other songs revolve. The lost soul of the 21st Century Man who has "everything." In "Channel 104" the Orwellian image of crowds in front of a giant screen has been replaced in actuality with the television viewer whose realities are continually challenged by the gulf between what's outside his window and what's on his television. The respect that Usher elicits in the New York music community runs deep. WFMU DJ and recording artist Laura Cantrell used an Usher-penned song, "Not the Tremblin' Kind," as the title song to her new, critically acclaimed album, and Bar None recording artist Kate Jacobs wrote a "tribute" song to Mr. Usher, titled "George Says," that opened her What About Regret record. The chorus tag line, "George says 'Love is never wasted'" suggests that for all of Usher's interest in philosophies and politics, a central theme of Usher's writing, including the songs on Days of Plenty, is love…with an Usher twist. Mixed by Mitch Easter, Days of Plenty is the follow up to Usher's 1998 album Dutch April.

Steve Almaas-Kingo A Wild One CD
(PAR-CD-067) $10.00

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Steve Almaas describes his new album as simply "a collection of songs I like. My last album (1998's Human, All Too Human) expressed a specific mood and feelings. This one is made up of old and new songs that I thought would sound good in the hands of the players." Produced by Steve Almaas, arranged by The Ministers of Sound, Kingo A Wild One was recorded by Eddie Sperry at Eddie's House in NYC and mixed by Mitch Easter at Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville NC. The album contains 12 songs, with one, "She Thought She Knew Him Well", dating back to Steve's days with his mid-'80s band Beat Rodeo. Others, like "Pretty Picture," were finished just prior to their recording. With Steve Almaas on guitar and lead vocals, The Ministers of Sound are Dan Prater (bass, backing vocals), Doug Wygal (drums, percussion), and Jon Graboff (6 and 12 string electric guitar, pedal steel, mandolin, acoustic guitar). Old friends Richard Barone (E-bow, vocals) and Chris Whitley (banjo) join in on "Kingo A Wild One" and "The Wrong Man" respectively. Kingo A Wild One is Steve's fourth solo album, the first to be released domestically in the U.S.

Jenifer Jackson-Birds CD
(PAR-CD-068) $10.00

Note to film buffs: Songs from Birds figure prominently in Daydream Believer, a new film by Debra Eisenstadt, winner of The Grand Jury's "Best Dramatic Feature of 2001" at the Slamdance Festival. Sometimes you hear a song and just know that you want to be involved in telling the world about the recording artist. Jenifer Jackson's "Mercury, The Sun & Moon" from Birds, produced one of those epiphanies. Her songs are lovely and mysterious and daring, intimate and natural, sexual and sparse and true and also deceptively simple. This peerless New York City songwriter's talent for melody and subtle arrangement make for a record full of style and short on kitsch. Delicately wrought by producer Brad Jones (Cotton Mather's Kontiki) with a handful of superb players, Jenifer Jackson's Birds is an elegant work of classic pop; effortlessly graceful and resonant. The Village Voice has called her "a passionate, evolved, swinging modern." CMJ said: "There's a particularly soft, almost naive sense of beauty to JJ's songs that belies the sophistication of their craftsmanship and presentation." Jenifer's recordings are liked by people who appreciate Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Burt Bacharach, and vocal jazz like Chet Baker and Julie London. Her performing, recording and songwriting credits include collaborations with Jules Shear, Medeski Martin and Wood, Oren Bloedow, Marshall Crenshaw, Swandive, and an album of duets recorded with her father, jazz radio DJ legend Julian Jackson.

Coming Soon...

Various Artists-Shoe Fetish: A Tribute to Shoes (Parasol) CD due in February
Waltz For Debbie-Gone and Out (Hidden Agenda) CD due in March
Green Pajamas-In a Glass Darkly (Hidden Agenda) EP due in March
Bettie Serveert-TBA (Hidden Agenda) Mini album due in April
Jack & the Beanstalk-TBA (Parasol) CD due in April
Tractor Kings-Sunday Night (Mud) CD due in May
Absinthe Blind-TBA (Parasol) CD due in May
Autoliner-TBA (Parasol) CD due in May
Club 8-TBA (Hidden Agenda) CD due in May

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

…The Beauty Shop is starting to attract attention from mainstream press outlets for its debut release Yr Money or Yr Life. Dave Sprague writing for RollingStone.com said, "Devoutly minimalist and unsparingly brooding, the Illinois-based band can conjure up images of the Tindersticks (in the cryptic elegance of arrangements like the one that swaths the menacing "Death March") or the Gun Club (thanks to ominous tales like the self-destructive "I Got Issues"). The mortar holding it all together oozes from the voicebox of frontman John Hoeffleur, whose sepulchral tones -- imagine Leonard Cohen with a deeply ingrained Midwestern drawl -- belie his youth, and lend undeniable heft to the dank, drug-sodden imagery that permeates the remarkably addictive disc." And, Time Out New York writes "Yr Money or Yr Life sound(s) like is a first-rate, sloppy acoustic album crawling with thoroughly morbid, mordant tunes about death, drugs, stalkers, tough times and bad love…" See them at Schuba's in Chicago on February 7.

SOME PARASOL RELATED ARTIST ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS

Neilson Hubbard

1. Mixing session you wish you could have attended-
"Probably none of them. I start hating songs after that many listens."

2. Songs you think you probably shouldn't like but just can't help yourself-
"'You're the Inspiration' by Chicago and 'Forever Yours' by Journey. They remind me of going to junior high dances."

3. Favorite record that you can't find on CD (or CD you can't find on vinyl)-
"I always use to look for Jamboree by Guadalcanal Diary, but never could find it, but recently I've been looking for Hugo Largo's Meddle."

4. First Concert-
"KISS (1979) Jackson, MS Coliseum."

5. Favorite Bass Player-
"Jason Wilkins. He's mine…keep your hands off."

Dropped by his major-funded independent label (E Pluribus Unum/Geffen/Interscope) after a mega-merger, Hubbard took back his latest album, Why Men Fail, and dropped it on the Parasol stoop. The album features musical contributions from Peter Holsapple, Will Kimbrough and David Lowery. Amazing stuff from this Mississippian who is a sometime collaborator of former This Living Hand bandmate Garrison Starr.

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