John Stewart - Day the River Sang
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CD Details
Artist: John StewartEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-02-21
Music Label: Appleseed Records
Soundtracks:
- Baby, It's You
- Jasmine
- East of Denver
- The Day the River Sang
- Run the Ridges
- New Orleans
- Golden Gate Fields
- Amanda Won't Dance
- Sister Mercy
- Broken Roses
- Naked Angel on a Star-Crossed Train
- Midnight Train
- Slider
Music reviews of Day the River Sang
Music Review: Grace, Hope, and Humanity
Rating: 5 Stars
If you read my review of Stewart's The Complete Phoenix Concerts, you know that I have been listening to this guy for almost 40 years, from his first solo effort, Signals Through the Glass (imagine using a wonderful quote from John Updike on the cover of your first solo album). I love his work, his humor, his songs of both hope and despair; on the other hand, I would not stamp every one of his recordings with the highest rating. At his worst, he is very good. At his best, there is no one better.
The Day the River Sang is a fitting valedictory to this man's career, his experiences, and his beliefs. It's no secret that Stewart, nearing 70, is not only still writing but is still performing, both here in the states and in the British Isles. His lovely and lilting homage to the sweet seduction of the road is found here in the song "Jasmine." Now Stewart has handled this topic before, as early as in "Freeway Pleasure" with the warning that "as long as the tires still cry on the highway, as long as the dogs still die on the road" he will always think of the road as his home. And as sharp as those images are, Stewart at least matches them in "Jasmine" as he sings "and, oh, here come those highways again, and, oh, here I go. And, oh, here comes 'I'll find you my friend' in roses and canyons" where "night blooming jasmine" still grows.
Stewart's "Broken Roses" gives word and music to the bittersweet truth of life that can only be learned by living it, by suffering through it, by finding the miracles among the madness. "I don't know what it means," he admits, "but I'm playing it through."
As with virtually all of Stewart's recordings, there seems to be one song that should have found a huge audience, should become part of this country's intellectual and emotional currency. His early "Armstrong," his Mount Rushmore like "Mother Country," his truly political and wonderfully populist "Survivors" all come to mind. On this recording, it is "New Orleans." Every time I listen to it, I recognize it for what I think it is--a soundtrack for both the glory and the ultimate tragedy of that great city. His voice is soft but plaintive; the New Orleans piano accompaniment is both chilling and sweet. And I swear that I can hear a light chuckle in Stewart's voice when he sings of "Voodoo Alley and Sweet King Cake, Confetti rain, for heaven's sake." Parts of the melody are familiar, as Stewart borrows from another early song, "Kansas," which, in its first incarnation, was bleakly existential yet, because this is Stewart, marginally hopeful. The same can be said of so many songs in his canon and on this recording.
John Stewart has suffered as much as most, and more than many. From his early days writing songs as part of the post-Dave Guard Kingston Trio, until now, 40 years later, he has had the good eye, the saving sense of humor, and the open heart.
Buy this cd. And then buy a whole bunch more of Stewart's recordings. He is nothing less than a gift in what always seem to be troubling times.
Description of Day the River Sang
John Stewart may appreciate the rewards of eBay?s current ad campaign, which is embedding "Daydream Believer," his 1968 #1 hit for The Monkees, in a new generation?s consciousness, but it?s a misleading calling card for the singer-songwriter described as "a master wordsmith who captures the soul of America in his songs" by Billboard.Since leaving the Kingston Trio, preceding the careers of Prine, Kristofferson, Springsteen, Earle, and the rise of the Americana movement, Stewart has written and recorded more than 50 albums of stripped down songs of everyday saints and sinners, their moments of elation and desperation, and of our country?s natural beauties and toxic political undercurrents. He?s recorded with Johnny Cash, and had his own songs recorded by Johnny?s daughter Rosanne and many others.
This latest collection of new Stewart originals affirms John?s powers as a master painter of indelible pictures in song. Using the warm leads and brushstrokes of his own guitars, his longtime rhythm section, and dabs of keyboards, harmonica and backing voices, Stewart applies a similarly understated approach to his lyrics and vocals. Now in his mid-60s, Stewart invests the opening love song, "Baby, It?s You," with a sense of relief and gratitude a younger man might lack. But the youthful gleam in his eye is unmistakable on the frisky "Amanda Won?t Dance." The pull between heart and highway is frequently felt, as in the lovely "Jasmine," on which John?s weathered tenor swoops into a sweet falsetto. One would be hard-pressed to find a more poignant elegy for the pre-Hurricane Katrina Crescent City than "New Orleans," with its heartbroken piano accompaniment and regret-filled vocals.
With their musical roots in folk, country, rock and bluegrass, John?s songs frequently encompass subjects stretching from the sky above to the mud below. "The Day the River Sang" includes a terse character study of the "junkies and jockeys" at "Golden Gate Fields," and the lightly jazzy "Slider," which watches a good girl go wrong. On the metaphysical end of the spectrum, the title track is a vision of paradise and peace, while "Sister Mercy" is a plea for direction in troubling times. In between are John?s tribute to his muse, "Naked Angel on a Star-Crossed Train," the propulsive tragicomedy of "Midnight Train," and a new version of "Run the Ridges," from his Trio days.
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