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Flanfire (Duggan Flanakin) is bringing LIFE to Austin music -- and telling the world how sweet it is!
Monday, February 18, 2008
The Safety Match Journal:
Aimee Bobruk's Masterpiece
I just read that the Cowboy Junkies (aka the Timmins Family Band) have re-done their masterpiece, "The Trinity Sessions." Without Kim Deschamps?? I am quite sure that the new "Trinity Revisited" (with Natalie Merchant and Ryan Adams) will be a fine collection -- but probably not another masterpiece.
Not to worry. Deschamps, who now lives in Austin, is even today at the center of the creation of great music.
And this time it's Austin's own (by way of Huntsville) Aimee Bobruk and her own "breakthrough"album, "The Safety Match Journal."
Darwin Smith and Aimee Bobruk
The story of how this ambitious, yet generous small-town girl turning into a lovely woman met the people who worked with her to help create this amazing recording will one day be fully told -- and it will be an inspiration (we trust) to another new generation of songwriters and performers -- and producers. But for today, we can just marvel at what Aimee, Kim, producer Darwin Smith, and musicians Brad Houser, Will Sexton, Matt Mollica, Dony Wynn, John Thomasson, John Bush, Kullen Fuchs, Jon Notarthomas, Steve Bernal, Erin Bobruk, Dazvid Chenu, Charles Branch, Steve Moore, Ana Egge, Roberto Riggio, Travis Weller, Melissa Greener, and Brian Standefer have created. But that's not all -- the artwork here is by Australian artist Shaun Tan, whose fantasy picture book "The Red Tree" was the inspiration behind Aimee's amazingly beautiful "For the Lost Airwaves."
Lest anyone think I have fallen for a pretty face, I am hardly alone in my praise for Aimee and this recording. Standefer says, "In a city known for it's songwriters, Aimee stands apart by writing songs that carry great weight and soul and yet are delivered to the listener with a graceful hand." Tucker Livingston adds, "Lyrically and musically, [Aimee is] one of the best up and coming songwriters that Austin has to offer; her sheer talent is startling." But if you have ANY doubts, just go to Aimee's CD release party on March 4th at the Cactus Cafe -- and listen. Sadly, I will be on an airplane unable to get there. But that opens up YOUR seat. SO GO!
Before talking about the songs, let me just say that Darwin Smith and his merrie men (and women) have complemented Aimee's songs with daring, yet subtle sounds -- horns, percussion, guitars, strings, various keyboards, and who knows what all -- that make you know you are having a gourmet meal with ALL the trimmings. And we're not talking about a brunch buffet, but of fine wines and subtle herbs and spices that enliven every bite and make each one a treat. Listen to this recording in a quiet place without distractions -- it's better than any massage.
Aimee here is at once spiritually sensitive, humanly jealous, socially relevant, and hopeful that someone out there is actually listening. The same way she is on Tuesdays at the Scoot Inn, where she and Hilary York have created a real living room out of a dingy old bar. And, oh by the way, when not singing or working at Waterloo Records, she actually babysits.
From Deschamps' mournful pedal steel that introduces "Liverpool," to the ethereal sounds that end "Shores of Gold," this record is just plain beautiful. Brad Houser plays bass, bass clarinet, and baritone sax on this cut, which also features Deschamps playing banjo and John Bush's amazing touches and Smith's own guitar work. This is a love song, by the way.
"For the Lost Airwaves" may be the most beautiful song I have ever heard, largely because of Aimee's angelic voice -- and I also like the poetry: "licorice winds unfurl a vision, beautiful, more dazzling than your every thought could be," for example. Fuchs on omnichord and french horn, Riggio's violin solo, Mollica's quiet B3, Moore's equally gentle piano all help Aimee interpret Tan.
"Fools for Love" is a tough commentary on how we search for love in all the wrong ways, yet "what if things don't last and all she gives gets cast down in the end, she wouldn't change her ways if it meant losing passion." Even so, Aimee begs for someone to "shine a light down for the lost and wounded hearted." Here, Mollica's organ provides the power, while Chenu's flute (and sax) add the color and Wynn's percussion the flavor.
"Losing the Magic" is really a dance with a little Latin flavor: "If I say it out loud will it lose the magic, will I lose this magic feeling inside?" Sounds like our gal's in love. But then "Puppets in Play" gets back to the TOUGH Aimee. This is strong medicine -- people faking it through life is "an outrage, a Philistine haze, I think we deserve something better ... why don't we cut the strings and call it quits." And why should we be content with people who "smile when they mean to cut you down," who "shmooz until their nose turns brown."
Fuchs' quiet trumpet (he also plays trombone, melodica, and vibraphone here) opens the Latin-flavored, "Yo Los Veo" (I see you), another biting commentary in which "The ice cream man drives by every day and little dirty faces run to pay, standing barefoot crowded by the door" -- but Aimee reminds us that "we are different but we live in the same streets" as these poor souls.
"Dulcinea" features Weller on violin and Bernal on cello as Aimee opens with passion -- "I have wanted to wrap you in my tongue, dissolve you slowly, surely; I have wanted to be the muse inspiration wrapped in the scarlet of your song" -- you "holy troubadour, holy dreamer." "First Move" is more passion, but for a nation crumbling from within. "Where were you when it happened, who's to blame if nobody acted?" Smith's nasty guitar, Wynn's drum explosions, and Mollica on both B3 and Rhodes punctuate the lyrics to better tell the story.
But then Aimee sings of "Precious Jesus," whom she begs to come and "raise me from the dark," a dark in which "I have found the perpetrator, I see blood upon my hands, Guilty I stand before you, Jesus, have mercy on this broken heart." Recognizing the pain caused by past unfaithfulness, the songwriter pleads, "Might I love again?" The harmonies and Deschamps' pedal steel provide the frame.
But WOW -- jealous passion emerges in "Here She Comes," that woman who is "asking for your time, I think she's after you." Melissa Greener's echo vocals are a nice touch here, while Smith and Notarthomas on guitar and again John Bush on percussion keep this number moving.
The final two cuts return to that peaceful theme that we began with. "Blessing" (Standefer on cell0 here) expresses that amazing hope that, even though "you've had your chance to take what's good and make it last, but you threw it all away, careless in play," we can still "thank God for forgiveness, thank God for friends who call you on the bad shots and bring your drama to and end." And yet, Aimee shrewdly suggests, maybe we could do better than "running free" until things go so wrong that we finally ask for a blessing.
"Shores of Gold" is yet another story poem on many levels -- from Houser's baritone sax and bass clarinet to Standefer's bass to Bush's touches to Smith's elbow guitar -- to Aimee's lyrics, which tell of meeting "a woman dressed in clouds of white descending" who promises to guide our drifting sailor to the golden shores. But these shores are not found on the surface but rather the woman in white leads our sailor "down through a darkness where all my voices struggled to be heard ... down to a bottom where nothing lay." And, yes, it truly is not until we come to the end of ourselves that we find what we are looking for.
Good as these songs are, Aimee may provide us with even better ones as she continues her search for truth and meaning in life, continues to open her eyes and ours to the life (and not so life) all around us. Next time you go hear her music, hope she sings "So Human," which may just be the title cut from her NEXT recording. What makes this music so powerful is that Aimee sees that the flaws she finds in the lives of others are equally reflected in her own human frailty -- and that she -- like the rest of us -- is fatally flawed and in need of grace.
Just for the record -- Aimee and Hilary will be at the Scoot on Tuesdays through May -- except for March 4th (the CD release night) and March 11th (SXSW parties begin early).
Flanfire -- Bringing LIFE to Austin music.
