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EVERY SINGLE DAY (Red House) • Lucy Kaplansky
This is a landmark disc by one of folk pop's most celebrated and well loved vocalists. Extremely radio friendly.
After the Chicago bars, Lucy came to NYC and almost launched as half a duo with Shawn Colvin before pulling up musical stakes and completing a doctorate in Psychology and working in the mental health field. Famous friends pulled her back into the business. Her ability to blend superlatively with the many-timbred voices of others landed her background vocal tracks on CDs with John Gorka, Nanci Griffith, Shawn Colvin, and Suzanne Vega.
Conversely, the background vocals on this record really stand out in my mind as important and special. Buddy Miller is a killer on "Don't Mind Me," I really got a kick out of hearing him on so pop a track. Jennifer Kimball on "Every Single Day," "No More Excuses" (and Julie Miller's incredible song "Broken Things"), she's beautiful. Richard Shindell does a holy job on "The Angels Rejoiced Last Night." Best of all, though, I liked John Gorka's singing on the great Steve Earle song "You're Still Standing There" and "Song for Molly." All the other backgrounds were handled by the artist herself, quintessentially.
Lucy also plays acoustic guitar and cowrote 7 of the 11 songs with husband Richard Litvin, a professor of film. Beyond the aforementioned covers of Julie Miller and Steve Earle, super songs by Paul Brady and the Louvin Brothers appear.
Let's have a hand for the band. Zev Katz plays wonderful bass, and Jon Herrington shows up on guitar for three tracks. They are the only players to get away with one instrument. Duke Levine shines characteristically on electric guitar, and adds mandola as well. Larry Campbell also plays great electric tracks, as well as pedal steel, cittern, fiddle and mandolin. Ben Wittman plays drums, percussion and keyboards, beautifully. Excellent ensemble.
Every Single Day is essential listening to lovers of folk pop, and sure to gather many new fans. Go check out a few tracks on our Listen page. • FG
view cover listen to clips lucykaplansky.com
