Release Date: 18 February, 2003
Audio CD
Tracks
- The World's Not Falling Apart (featured guests: Michael Kang - Fiddle; Stefan Lessard - bass)
- Farewell To The Old Me (featured guests: Stefan Lessard - bass; John Medeski - keyboards)
- I Saw A Bird Fly Away (featured guests: John Medeski - keyboards; John Popper - harmonica, vocals)
- The Beauty of The Rain (featured guest: Chris Botti - trumpet)
- Mercy of The Fallen
- The One Who Knows (featured guest: Alison Krauss - vocals)
- Closer To Me (featured guest: Bela Fleck - banjo)
- Fishing In The Morning (featured guests: Bela Fleck - banjo; Michael Kang - fiddle)
- Whispering Pines (featured guests: Chris Botti - trumpet; Cliff Eberhardt - vocals; Alison Krauss -vocals; Stefan Lessard - bass)
- Your Fire Your Soul (featured guest: John Medeski - keyboards)
- I Have Lost My Dreams
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Rating 4.0
Beauty to a new fanLike many, I suppose, I know of Dar and her friend Richard Shindell through the album Cry,Cry,Cry. Due to the loveliness of that I bought The Beauty of the Rain and have been pleased and blessed every since. Even when I can't say I am in tune with her philosophical wanderings, the melody and musicality woo my ears. From the deep swirly harmony of "Whispering Pines" to the bareness (in accompaniment and honesty) of the title track to the poppish beat mixing sadness and hope in "Mercy of the Fallen," this CD makes a nice aural backdrop to my day (though I admit to skipping over the lesser songs, such as "I Saw a Bird."
Concerning its similarity to previous albums, you older fans have to have seen her moving towards this style, especially after Green Things. I like this style much better than her early stuff--which I think fitted into folk of the 90's and not neccessarily folk definitively, but take into account that I listened to that earlier stuff only recently and was not a devoted fan over the years. Some differences would be more conventionally ordered verses and choruses, more focused but less informative narrative, and yes, a more pop/rock beat. To each his own!More consistent, with the usual gems.I'm not an unquestioning fan of Dar Williams. I first saw her on a complete lark, some time between the releases of her first and second albums; I bought the first CD at the show, which was held in a community center in San Diego. As a singer, she both benefits and (occasionally) suffers from a sweet, sweet voice, since it works well with the better material, but can drift into the oversweet on some of her other tracks; still others sound like what you might expect from a young, inexperienced college girl. Even when her melodies are at their prettiest, you are either attuned to the sentiment of "Family" (from "Mortal City") or you are not. As a writer, I find the majority of her songs forgettable, but every one of her albums has three or four absolute gems of songwriting craft on it, and while everything has a sheen of sweetness cast over it, underneath the sugar there's an unusual range. Her songs are alternately tragic, funny, reflective, didactic, etc.
On "The Beauty of the Rain," I suppose the big story is the recruitment of a decent roster of guest stars (John Popper, Alison Krauss, John Medeski, etc.) in supporting roles, but for the most part (thankfully) they never intrude too far. This is still a Dar Williams record, and like all of her others I can pick out some highlights (the title track, "Farewell to the Old Me," "Closer to Me," "Fishing in the Morning") and the rest, with one exception, I'm just not into.
But the one exception is everything, here. The song is called "The One Who Knows," and while, like most Dar Williams songs, the sentiment might run a little sweet, it never crosses my personal threshold for such things. That threshold is set a bit higher these days, though, since I've been a parent for several years, and this particular track is a love song from parent to child that hits all the right notes. Everything I want for my daughters is encapsulated in this song, all the more notable for being written by a woman with no children. It's not often a non-parent manages to get it right. "The One Who Knows" should be mandatory listening for anyone who thinks highly of schmaltzy wedding reception fare like "Butterfly Kisses;" it's the song that "Butterfly" only wishes it could be.
Future artists, male and female, are going to be cherry-picking Dar Williams' songs for decades to come. Joan Baez hopped on the bandwagon early on with a cover of "You're Aging Well," and I'm surprised Alison Krauss hasn't covered her yet. You might as well listen to the original now.bland, bland, blandI have really tried with this one, but no matter how many times I've put it on, it just doesn't hold my attention. By the third track I've completely forgotten it's playing. So very disappointing. I'm a huge fan of all her other recordings -- what the heck happened here? |
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