1996: Up in the Attic

Carrie Newcomer: Up in the Attic

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We all have parts of our lives that we pack up in boxes and stash away, never to be seen again. In Up in the Attic, Carrie Newcomer’s narrator finds one of these boxes, and the memories it contains. The song comes from her album My Father’s Only Son. Newcomer plugs in and rocks out in some songs on this album, and those songs sound better than the rock efforts of many of her contemporaries among folk artists of that time. But Newcomer really shines in the quieter moments on the album, and they give a better idea of how she sounds today.

For the Birds: Hummingbird and Skylark and Owl, oh my!

Kris Delmhorst: Hummingbird

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Bette Midler: Skylark

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Carrie Newcomer: I Heard an Owl

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I must say I was quite pleased when I heard what this week's theme was to be... because I had made a Birds mix CD a few years back and thought I could cull some good songs from there - upon perusing the tracklist, it turns out that most of them have the generic word Bird in the title (rather than a certain type of feathered friend). Ah, well - plenty more where those came from, especially in my aviary of female artists...

I adore anything Kris Delmhorst sings and writes... and this is a breathy confessional of hiding her light, flower and voice until the object of her affection is out of sight/earshot, at which point she shines brightly, blooms profusely and sings beautifully - over the years, she's perfected The Art of Melancholy Sweetness...

I've been a Bette Midler fan for decades, having been turned on to her music by a college roommate - this classic reinterpretation is from her first album and, in retrospect, would have worked perfectly for our Torch Songs theme a few weeks back...

Carrie Newcomer's repertoire consists of lovely, inspirational songs that cut straight to the heart and spirit - this is her reaction to the events of September 11 ("the only peace this world will know can only come from love")...

Mothers: The Rooms My Mother Made

Carrie Newcomer: The Rooms My Mother Made

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As we journey through life, and as we journey through this week’s posts, we experience a variety of emotions about mothers. From the unconditional love we experience in early childhood, through the resentful feelings that some experience in their teenage years, and on to a bittersweet appreciation and acceptance that hopefully comes in later life, feelings about motherhood are complicated. In The Rooms My Mother Made, Carrie Newcomer doesn’t shy away from any of these feelings and more, But acceptance is her theme, and she expresses it beautifully. So this seemed to me to be the perfect song to bring my posts for this week to a close.