Sam Phillips: a boot and a shoe CD Track Listing

A list by checkmate

Sam Phillips a boot and a shoe (2004)
2004 Nonesuch Records, Inc.\nOriginally Released April 27, 2004\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Sam Phillips took a deliberate detour from the sparkly neo-psychedelic pop of her best-known work on her 2001 album, Fan Dance, which stripped her songs and their accompaniment to their bare framework and reveled in the beauty that lay within. Phillips and her producer and collaborator, T-Bone Burnett, have followed much the same course with 2004's A Boot and a Shoe, which in many ways sounds like Fan Dance, Pt. 2; featuring a number of the same musicians (including guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionists Carla Azar and Jim Keltner) A Boot and a Shoe was recorded and mixed in the same spare, open manner, reveling in the acoustics of the rooms and the subtle creaks of aging instruments. However, while there was something deep and meditative in the quiet spaces of Fan Dance, the 2004 release tends to put a somewhat lighter and more playful spin on the same themes. While the gravity of Phillips' take on matters both spiritual ("Hole in My Pocket") and personal ("If I Could Write") hasn't changed, A Boot and a Shoe has a bit more of a spring in its step, especially in the subtle sensuality of "Red Silk 5," the easygoing sway of "Drawman," and the torchy undercurrents of "How to Quit." What sounded austere on Fan Dance sounds simple on A Boot and a Shoe, and it's the differing inferences of those two adjectives that makes all the difference. It goes without saying that Phillips' vocals are both unaffected and lovely, and that the subtle, literate confessionalism of her songs is a thinking person's delight, as always. What made Fan Dance different is how Phillips proved her songs could work just as well without the sonic gingerbread of Martinis & Bikinis and Omnipop, and A Boot and a Shoe shows that she can achieve a broad and lively palette in the most modest of musical circumstances. -- Mark Deming\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nHer best, May 18, 2004 \nReviewer: mogoland from Torrance, CA \nAbout 15 years ago, there was a recording artist who no longer wanted to sing religious pop anthems crafted by fundamentalist elves on a Nashville song writing assembly line. She left that life behind for the chance to write and sing about real faith and real doubt; real joy and real pain; real love and real hate. And the fact that no national syndicate of radio stations can find a profit-driven programming formula that has a place for her music probably is the greatest testimony to the success of her efforts. Candy sells, whereas not many of us pay to hear reflections on the often painful truths of our lives. Most folks who were big fans of Sam's Christian incarnation will never hear this new album, as they never cared for the artist as much as they did the manufactured lyrical propaganda she was being paid to sing. What a pity, as on this album of moody melodies and complex poetry reside at least a pair of tunes (Reflecting Light, One Day Late) that would instantly make any church that performed them worth attending. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nThis is her best album, May 13, 2004 \nReviewer: ORSETTI Hugues from MANOSQUE France \nand I have listened to them all several times. All are good or great, since she records under the name of Sam Phillips (avoid the Leslie ones). Her Virgin years were all sophisticated, tasty gems (The Indescribable Wow, Cruel Inventions, Martinis & Bikinis, Omnipop) but it seems Sam found her real way when she signed for Nonesuch (current label of Wilco, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell and the great Robin Holcomb) - her previous album "Fan Dance" was intimate and Sam didn't use that peculiar acid voice. But there were still some odd tracks, some arty stuff sounding like someone hidden behind fantasy. It seems Sam spent all her artistic career trying to reach, to find the keys of her own identity and truth. "A Boot & A Shoe" is her first album that doesn't include weird tracks. It's all about sweet, subtle pop melodies, acoustic chords and nice drummings. This album is a marvel, a pleasure, a secret happiness from start to finish. I'm glad I was curious enough to follow Sam's music until now. I feel like rewarded. \nOther point : Sam is American but makes European music. Her musical world sounds SO European. Could even be funny to observe that the best European pop music today is made by an American! \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\na lovely collection of songs, May 13, 2004 \nReviewer: Joseph Horne from Atlanta, GA USA \nSam continues to grow as a writer, and performer. She continues to strip away everything, leaving only the essential, the essence of the song. And the results are quite wonderful. How nice to discover someone who can still write a melody that you enjoy singing - the kind you don't mind having stuck in your head for a while. A very fine recording, and highly recommended. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nPoetry at its finest, May 7, 2004 \nReviewer: LoveandChrisses from San Rafael, CA USA \nIn the world of music, we have few great poets left. Dylan is one. Sam is another. Each song on "a boot and a shoe" is a poem in the purest sense: so much said, so much left unsaid. That's why this CD is a masterpiece. It cries out to be listened to over and over again.\n\nAnd the music surrounds the words in gentle, but brilliant hues. As stated in other reviews, you can waltz to "Reflecting Light"; but there is also a soft-shoe feel of "All Night", a slow cheek-to-cheek on "How to Quit", and a line dance to "Drawman".\n\nSam has taken chances in the past with the music she makes. She has done it again, and the shoe fits quite nicely. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nSome Kind of Wonderful, May 4, 2004 \nReviewer: deniro67 from Midwestern U.S. \nLike it or not, enigma invites analysis, which is why, in the time-worn tradition of music critics overdoing it, I began looking for clues as to what this latest Sam Phillips recording was all about.\n\n"All Night" and "Red Silk Five," like their counterparts, "Is That Your Zebra" and "Edge of the World," combine cinematic lyrics, noir tone, and the hint of mystery and detection. But where the Weimar Republic decadence of Fan Dance suggests apocalypse, or at least decline, A Boot and a Shoe accomplishes a lighter touch and a new focus, right down to the autumnal colors of the liner notes.\n\nCall it a step away from the notion that ambiguity equals profundity. Between this record and the last Sam and husband, producer, and musician T-Bone Burnett unambiguously gave birth to their first child. Pregnant women are often said to glow, possibly due to the hormonal changes that also drive up their mood. Maybe that is the glow we see in the photos and on "Reflecting Light," where, after growing tired of the world's pleasures, she writes of being "on her knees in fascination," the traditional posture of someone giving thanks in prayer. The song is a waltz -- the last civilized dance in the civilized world, as one wizened music store owner put it to me. \n\nThe idea of a cohesive rock band is more or less gone, though A Boot and A Shoe is a little more fleshed out than Fan Dance. Although Sam's acoustic guitar strumming dominates, it is often accompanied by the boom of what sounds like a Salvation Army drum. A string quartet figures more prominently than Marc Ribot's electronic distortion. \n\n"I was broken when you found me," she begins in "How to Quit," but repeated references to the redemptive power of love suggest she is no longer dancing in the dark. "Open the World," "Infiltration," and "Drawman" shuffle along happily. "If I Could Write" prepares the way for confessional melancholy, but the refrain "don't think I'm coming back," sounds as light as a child skipping on the sidewalk. "Love Changes Everything" comes close to a Partridge Family sing-a-long.\n\nDuring the making of Ten Summoner's Tales, Sting said that he realized he didn't have to be miserable to write a good song. I too have grown skeptical of the romantic point of view that considers misery a sign of profundity and happiness merely a synonym for ignorance. If Sam wants to celebrate her life in song, that's fine with me. Another dirge like Fan Dance would have been tiresome. If I have any complaints, it is that the songs are too short. With 13 songs clocking in at a total of just over 30 minutes, Sam obviously prefers the dash to the long-distance run. I suppose there could be some deep intellectual rationalization for this, such as the desire to make songs more like haiku. Or perhaps she is simply leaving the audience wanting more.\n\nWhich is what the fan dance is all about. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nYet Another Exceptional Release from Sam Phillips, May 3, 2004 \nReviewer: batmansbrb from Seymour, IN United States \nWow, Sam Phillips NEVER ceases to amaze me!! While it took me a while to get into "Fan Dance", mainly because I loved her Virgin Records sound so much and "Fan" was such a shock to my ears, I came out of it later knowing that it was one of her best releases and that "Five Colors" and "Wasting my Time" was two of my all-time favorite Sam Phillips songs. I received two sample songs of this new release, "How to Quit" and "All Night" and I loved them immediately and couldn't wait to get this release. Well, I finally have it and man, it is phenominal! It's in the same vein as "Fan Dance" and "The Turning", but it's more upbeat than "Fan Dance". This entire CD is a masterpiece of acoustical music, intelligent lyrics, and percussion. While I love every song on here, I find myself really enjoying "How to Quit", "All Night", "Red Silk Five", "I Dreamed I stopped Dreaming", "Draw Man", "Love Changes Everything", "If I Could Write", and the funny, but true song "(Help is Coming) One Day Late". Sam's voice is in fabulous condition (possibly the best of her career) and the instrumentation is still minimal, but very intricate. I have to say I really enjoy all the percussion sounds in this release that weren't there in "Fan Dance". It takes a tremendous talent to make intricate music work and Sam is very confident in her writing and music abilities and it shows. This release really begins to draw you in after several listens and you find yourself so hooked on it that you don't want to stop listening to it. As soon as the CD finishes, you immediately start it over again and again.\n\nSam Phillips was my favorite female artist back in the late 80's with "The Turning" and all these years forward and even today, she is still my favorite female artist and she has yet to let me down. If you like intelligent lyrics and artistic music, this is your release!! I can't praise it enough! \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nAs always, it gets better with repeated listenings., May 1, 2004 \nReviewer: mark burgess from Tulsa, OK \nSam Phillips is one of those artists who I want to dislike. I've bought every one of her post-Christian albums when they came out and every time (with the possible exception of Martinis and Bikinis) I've found myself saying "This album is dull and uninspired". Then I listen to it a few more times and realize I was totally wrong. I wouldn't say that this is her best album but it's definitely another in a string of classic recordings by this much under-appreciated artist. If it weren't for Ms. Phillips and the Go-Betweens I probably wouldn't even buy music anymore. I'm looking forward to her next release when I might finally be able to say "Ah, she's lost it now" but somehow I doubt it. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nSam finds melancolic bliss with her "Boot & A Shoe", April 28, 2004 \nReviewer: mzombie \nSam Phillips, as stated many times before, could be one of the most underrated singer-songwriters ever to make record of their craft. After her Virgin years of courting mainstream success (the closest catch being the excellent "Martinis & Bikinis" record and her almost-hit "I Need Love") left a bitter taste in her mouth, Phillips took another segue in her already puzzling career - she and producer/husband T-Bone Burnett stripped the gloss, unplugged and made her masterpiece, 2001's "Fan Dance". It's intimate production value and sweeping torch songs brought Sam to the forefront, leaving nothing but the necessities: that sensuous voice, those perfect pop melodies and her trademark - the intelligent, often cynical dark humor of her lyrics. \n\nBut whereas "Fan Dance" was bristling and anxious in this naked skin, projecting a noir-ish paranoia to it, "A Boot And A Shoe" practically revels in the simplicity...paranoia gives way to melancoly, melancoly gives way to hope. And, judging by the lyrics in this fraternal twin of "Fan Dance", melancoly and hope is all our Sam has in the wake of her recent self-professed "failure at love" with Mr. Burnett. Songs waft and wane from hopelessness to reckless abandon like a woman looking at the world anew. As stated in the swoon-worthy "Reflecting Light": "Now that I've worn out the world, I'm on my knees in fascination." \n\nWhich is not to say this album is a major departure for Phillips... all the necessities are here: peppy pop confections to stay in your head for days ("All Night", "Infiltration"), devastatingly beautiful ballads ("I Dreamed I Stopped Dreaming"), a heaping helpful of mystery and intrigue ("Red Silk 5", "Drawman") and of course that biting lyrical cynicism.. "Help is coming one day late", coos Phillips on "One Day Late", but she paints her cynicism in pastels as opposed to the basic colors of "Fan Dance", letting the melancoly pull you in to an almost rapturous effect...until you begin to notice that like Phillips, you need to get through the sadness and cynicism to feel the hope. "There always has been good like stars you don't see in the day sky" she continues on "One Day Late," only affirming this journey. \n\nIt's important to note that "A Boot & A Shoe" is a much more percussive record than "Fan Dance" - often the drums are mixed to provide a "boom and bash" umph that was somewhat missing in the previous record. A few of the songs are augmented by the silky strings of the Section Quartet, another seemingly calculated distance from the dark tone Van Dyke Parks's orchestration in "Fan Dance" songs such as "Wasting My Time". But that's the point to "A Boot & A Shoe": where "Fan Dance" was soft, this one is hard, where it was dark, this one is light - and, more importantly, where "Fan Dance" was atmospheric and spiritual, this album has it's feet firmly planted in reality, with the occasional jump to another plane...in essence it is the perfect bookend and a brilliant record, even if it lacks a bit of the character and artifice that made "Fan Dance" her masterwork. \n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nT-Bone Burnett, Producer\n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel includes: Sam Phillips (vocals); Patrick Warren (piano); T-Bone Burnett (bass); Jim Keltner, Jay Belarose, Carla Azar (drums).
This misc cd contains 13 tracks and runs 34min 43sec.
Freedb: ad08210d
Buy: from Amazon.com

Categories

Latest lists

Sam Phillips: a boot and a shoe CD Track Listing

Category

Tags

cyList

Legal