At 11:40 PM 2/4/1999 Ms. Woodchip wrote:
>Myles has a good voice, but I don't think
>it's anything that special. I'll say the same thing about the songwriting on
>Allison
>Moorer's cd. They both have good voices and they are good looking.
Well, tastes do vary, eh? I'll say that for my part, I bought HIGHWAYS AND
HONKYTONKS, fell in love with it and now I own all 3 of her studio records
and the import live disc. All bought based on my strong positive reaction
to HAH, then to each successive purchase. I guess I've just got a higher
threshold for boredom than some. <g>
But I like the way "True Love", or "You're Gonna Love Me One Day" (for just
two) make me feel, every time I hear em. As for the quality of the
songwriting? Well, it's lyrically direct and uncomplicated but it's very
evocative for me.
And for my part, I too am left pretty cold by the Allison Moorer record. It
bores me, for whatever reason.
That pesky taste thing again. Clearly, if music don't move you, it just don't.
And in neither case does the fact that both gals are nice looking have
anything to do with how I hear the records.
But speaking of nice looking: (!)
>And that's pretty much a dime a dozen here in Nashville. Not Kelly Willis.
>That's
>another story. Excellent songwriting and inspired cover choices.
I've got all 3 previous Kelly Willis records and the EP. Checking over the
last two and the EP that I have at hand, I see that she split a writing
credit on one of BANG BANG's 10 tracks, on 3 of KELLY WILLIS's 10 tracks
though she does split 3 of the 4 tracks on FADING FAST. I am anxious to
hear WHAT I DESERVE, but I don't know what proportion of the tunes are
written by her. I've read some promo stuff that mentions other noted writers.
This not to rag on the wonderful Ms. Willis, but to point out that while
she does indeed have great taste in the tunes she sings, she doesn't write
the same proportion of her own stuff as Heather Myles. I'm scrambling
around here looking for the records and can't find them, but a check of
HIGHWAYS... shows that Ms. Myles wrote all but the two covers on the
record, 10 of 12 tracks. (And smilin' Jim thinks the covers are her best
stuff. He's WRONG, but just sayin'. <g>)
This says nothing, of course, for the fact that you don't care for Heather
Myles songwriting vis a vis the songs of other people's that Ms. Willis
does that you find to be excellent. I just give a little extra credit to an
artist who performs their own songs, particularly when they strike me like
these often do.
>I've been
>listening
>to her new cd pretty much non-stop for about 3 months now. I'd even hand
over my
>woodchipper
>to sing like Kelly Willis for just one day. <g>
Lay that woodchipper down Marie. Kelly Willis is my favorite female singer
these days. I saw her for the first time in St. Louis last October and she
was even better than I thought she'd be. But she's not really directly
comparable to Heather Myles, and it's an apples and oranges comparison. IMHO.
b.s.
"The truth ain't always what we need, sometimes we need to hear a beautiful
lie." -Bill Lloyd
