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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1987)
Four for the road Albums for a long hot summer include the Parton/RonstadtI Harris Trio and Timeless , featuring Diane Schurr. BY S DR. TANTALUS ■■■■■■■■■i Retail/Wholesale welcome. Free product delivery to f businesses in S.F Bay Area Selection continually grows! Selection includes World Peace & Sealife designs! h / iPt/a, Woma/w ' /O y Af/svta Tfreet; Suite /CK3 ummer is a time for surfin’ safaris, dancin' in the streets and walkin’ on sunshine. Time to pull on your shorts and drop the “ g” off your verbs. Forget the formal; roll down the top and cruise on into It’s Better than Ever Street. So let’s talk about what keeps your car running five miles over the speed limit and forget our troubles for awhile. As it happens there are some very classy women to help us with the task at hand. Trio is the long awaited album from Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmy- lou Harris that lives up to, and occasion ally exceeds, the high expectations that are raised by this combination of star-studded talent. Working in a mostly country vein, our heroines bring a light and restrained touch to their material, which ranges from the traditional to Phil Spector. More remarkably, Trio is truly a collaborative effort, while each singer is allowed to display her own considerable abilities, a sense of harmony and unity is always maintained. In fact, despite the dis tinctiveness of their voices, the harmony on this album approaches the feeling of hearing a single voice. Of particular note is Spector’s “ To Know Him Is to Love Him,’’ Parton and Wagner’s “ The Pain of Loving You” and Linda Thompson’s “ Telling Me Lies.” This is country without the com and pop without the poop. A slightly older release is Kate Bush’s The Whole Story, a “ greatest hits” collec tion from a performer who has not enjoyed the type of success in the United States that she deserves. In comparison to other pop artists, Bush is rather avante garde. She is not con strained by the shackles of the verse/chorus dichotomy that dominates popular music as a whole. This makes the older songs on the album, some of which date back ten years, still sou^d fresh and new. If the strength of a record is the number of times you can play it without becoming violently ill. Bush wins hands down every time. Her music speaks to your heart; her lyrics to your head. A more traditional popstylist is Whitney Houston, whose second outing, humbly Stationery, cards, poetry, posters designed especially tor women. 75 page catalogue, $3 50 U S. currency, refundable with first order MAIL ORDER. Free updates i Saa Francisco, Ga/t/oenia $ 4 /0 6 <3?0f - Selected items are available at A Woman’s Place Bookstore !!! titled “ Whitney,” has just arrived in your local store. Whitney’s many fans will want to know whether this measures up to the zillion selling first album. Well, brothers and sisters, the diagnosis from this comer is that Ms. Houston will continue to get richer and richer after you discover that this album has enough hits to make Pete Rose jealous. Of course, the Doctor remains suspici ous of easy overnight success. However, Faithful Companion urged me to listen to this record and 1 must admit that she has her moments. (So does Faithful Compa nion, but that’s another column.) One sour note: the liner credits are enough to make you gag. Last, but not least, is Diane Schurr’s 1986 release, Timeless. Although this re cord is older than the others reviewed in this month’s column, Schurr was recently recommended by several wealthy patients after they caught her bravura performance at the Masonic Temple. Ah, the delights of the idle rich! Timeless is an exploration of a particu larly American musical past, from Gersh win to Porter to Ellington to Brubeck. And the result is not only a collection of songs whose legacy is timeless, but a perform ance as well by a singer of incredible range and sense of style, song and self. In Cole Porter’s “ Easy to Love” Schurr bounces around from one note to another, at appa rently odd intervals, with an orchestra go ing a separate direction. So it appears that she also has an amazing sense of pitch as well. Jazz afficionados will be in pig heaven. So let’s crank up the sound — unless you are next door — and get those feet a’ movin’. It’s summer! • roozE 0 5 h i TABOR FL RI T Contemporary and Distinctive Designs Created Specifically for You and Your Lifestyle WE DELIVER BALLOON BOUQUETS! The Great Northwest Bookstore 1001 S.W. 10th Avenue. Portland. Oregon 97205 • (503) 223-8098 in Mink 7 ,5 (MK) l i t i o A ll categoric*! h a r d l in e r i V p a p e rb a c k H o o k s bou g h t a n d sold v 25% i ith thi* oft We Buy T extbooks 7819 SE Stark 256-2920 Just Out, 29 July, 1987 ,
