Jane Siberry fans?

Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm · 06-11-2003, 07:52 AM

I discovered Jane Siberry six years ago thanks to (what else?) her guest vocal turn on "The Bridge" from Joe Jackson's magnificent Heaven and Hell. Based on Jackson's high recommendation, I picked up the only two Siberry albums I could get my hands on: Bound by the Beauty and Maria.

Maria I can take or leave. It's Jane with a jazz band behind her, and most of it just seems tuneless and rambling to me. It's like the singer and the band are playing two different songs. Bound by the Beauty is fantastic in places, only very good in others, but it clearly marked her as an artist to be watched. I picked up the folk-song collection Hush when it came out; it's a gorgeous record but her songwriting was what interested me on Bound...

So I had three very different albums by an intriguing artist, none of which seemed really able to pin her down. Couple that with the fact that her albums are extremely hard to find in central Virginia and I was at an impasse. She was always there in the background, though, someone I knew I would get more into later.

Then I found When I Was a Boy at my church's yard sale.

WOW.

This is one of the best albums I have ever heard. It has a lot in common with Bound by the Beauty, but everything is done better, with more wonder and passion. I'm still digesting it.

Any other Sib fans around? Any further recommendations?

Ken_WI · 06-11-2003, 09:14 AM

Yes, I have been a fan of Jane's since the mid-80s when I saw a video of "One More Colour" on MTV. Her songwriting is great, and she has a beautiful voice. I also like the instrumentation and attention to detail in her recordings.

"When I Was A Boy" is definitely one of her best, if not THE best. "Bound By The Beauty" is also excellent. I would recommend 3 others of hers without hesitation.

The Speckless Sky
No Borders Here
The Walking

And if you grow to love these as much as I do, then pick up her hard-to-find self-titled 1st album. It is not as good as the others, but contains 3 or 4 songs which are excellent, and one song, "In The Blue Light", which is as good as anything she's ever done.

John Watson · 06-11-2003, 09:16 AM

If I'm not mistaken, Rhino has a 2 disk compilation available.

And here's a fan site :

http://www.smoe.org/nbh/

David Lawson · 06-11-2003, 09:47 AM

Andrew, check out Vickie's post in my Canadian thread. She can offer more than I can.

At the moment, the only album I have access to is Teenager, which is an interesting experiment, since she took songs she wrote as a teenager and put them to music almost 30 years later. This probably isn't the best introduction to her; the album is acoustic, and there's little variance between most of the songs, causing everything to blend together. Perhaps that was the point, to showcase her immaturity as a songwriter during her teenage years, but it just doesn't work for me.

Also, follow the link in that thread to A&B Sound if you want to purchase some more CDs. I notice that a number of her older discs are $6 CDN, and shipping to the US on the four discs I previously ordered was negligible.

Philip Hamm · 06-11-2003, 12:23 PM

Her song for "The Crow" sounds fantastic on the DTS LaserDisc during the credits roll-out. Didn't I give you that LD when I got the DTS one? Roll the credits for a great song. Her song "My Mother Was The White Dove" on the "Honor" compilation is extremely rambling - almost - having a melody many times.

**HTF Ads**

Jeff Ulmer · 06-11-2003, 01:30 PM

If you like Jane Siberry, you may also enjoy Dar Williams, or on a bit more poppy side, October Project.

Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm · 06-11-2003, 07:13 PM

Somehow I never made the connection between Jane Siberry and The Crow. Her song "Calling All Angels" just destroyed the audience when I saw Pay It Forward.

Phil_DC · 06-11-2003, 10:00 PM

The song from The Crow is called " It can't rain all the time"

Michael Martin · 06-12-2003, 07:36 AM

Last fall I borrowed "When I Was a Boy" from the library. I was excited, hoping I had found a "new" artist.

I was very disappointed. "Calling All Angels" and "Temple" were OK, but the rest of the CD was just not tolerable.

Jane seems to have a good voice, and writes some good lyrics (words?), but the album just came off as too pretentious to me. It felt like one long spoken-word poem or reading rather than songs. The production was great, and I think Jane's a talented woman, but the style of "song" on this CD just did not connect with me.

The library also has "Hush," which I have NOT checked out. Is it substantially different from "Boy"? Is it worth giving it a listen?