The Tide

Heidi stumbled across this CD (how, I'm not entirely certain) today at Borders -- Lucy Kaplansky's The Tide. It was 18 bucks there, so I appealed to her to please check iTunes first as it'd likely be a lot cheaper there. And, of course, it was there. I bought it and I'm telling you, I love it! At first, I wasn't sure why I liked it, but I think I've figured it out. It reminds me a lot of mid-90s Mary Chapin Carpenter -- but without the Nashville corporate sheen that she was getting at that time. (And that's not slaggingon Chapin at all - even with the commerical Nashville machine working for her, he raw talent still shone through.)

And the reason it reminds me of mid-90s Chapin? It was released in 1994. The one she was listening to in Borders was apparently a remaster of her debut album. The one I downloaded from iTunes was the original version - and to me, it's indistiguishable from the remaster, at least via the samples on iTunes - but Heidi will probably end up buying the remaster as she says it's just a little bit different and something about the remaster appealed to her that's missing on the version that I bought. Oh well, to each their own, I guess.

I love finding new music - especially thoughtful, introspective music. Don't get me wrong - I'm the biggest whore for pop music that I've ever known, but a part of my inner four just can't get enough of Mary Chapin Carpenter's inner dialogue that she's always turning into songs. Or Casey Stratton's brand of male-angst that somehow validates all the angst that I feel at times in my life.

And it's funny - on this Lucy Kaplansky CD, there's all these deep lyrics set, quite frequently, to a fun folksy accompaniment. So it's not like it's all "night-night" music.

I'll probably be buying more of her stuff before long.