CDs are now searchable on our website, but stock status is not always currently visible. Please call the store at 202-364-1919 with questions or to order. You may also continue to email me at agoldinger@politics-prose.com to order.
SONGWRITERS
Kin: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell (Vanguard, $15.98) – Kin is a special project: memoirist and poet Mary Karr (The Liar’s Club, Lit) collaborated with singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell on an album of beautifully crafted songs (Mr. Crowell also published a recent memoir, Chinaberry Sidewalks). Then they gathered some of the best voices in music to sing them: Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack, Kris Kristofferson, and Rodney Crowell himself.
There are some fantastic liner notes by Ms Karr. Here’s a sample, comparing Rodney Crowell’s upbringing to hers: “His parents drank too much, and his house sported a few bullet holes. As did mine. In this, as in so much, we are kin, born a few years and a bout 100 miles apart in the same swampy, godforsaken stretch of East Texas Ringworm Belt in the age right before air conditioning.” Highly recommended.
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ashes and Roses (Zöe/Rounder, $15.98) – One forgets how often and how consistently Mary Chapin Carpenter has produced wonderful albums full of resonant songs. Ashes and Roses has a quiet, philosophical mood and a wistful air, with spare arrangements.
NOTE: Mary Chapin Carpenter will perform at Wolf Trap on Saturday, August 18.
THE TONY AWARDS
You can experience two of the big musical winners at Sunday night’s Tony Awards, courtesy of new cast recordings.
Once: A New Musical (Sony Broadway, $13.98) won Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Steve Kazee), as well as six other Tonys.
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess: Original Broadway Cast (PS Classics, $20.98) won for Best Revival of a Musical, and Audra McDonald won for Best Actress in a Musical.
SPECIAL OFFER: 7” SINGLE BY JHEREK BISCHOFF
With purchase of the CD below, you receive a free, limited-edition 7” vinyl, featuring “Eyes,” a collaboration with David Byrne, and “Young and Lovely,” with Zac Pennington & SoKo.
Jherek Bischoff is a Seattle-based composer, songwriter, and performer. His first solo album, Composed (Brassland, $13.98) is a wonderful example of cinematic chamber pop, full of original songs, lushly arranged with full strings, brass, and woodwinds. Bischoff sings some of the tunes, but brings in many guest vocalists and instrumental soloists as well, such as Caetano Veloso, Carla Buzulich, and Nels Cline.
