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Music
CONTRIBUTED STORY
tor
T u t P ortland O bserver
“ I decided I had to get fearless,”
says A ngie A paro. “ I realized that if
you ’ re truly an arti st, w hether you ’ re
W oody G uthrie or a m edieval artist,
y o u ’ve sim ply got to com m unicate.
It’s in those m om ents that y o u ’re
re a lly a liv e . C o m m u n ic a tin g ,
creating - th a t’s w hat I have to do.”
W ith characteristic intensity, the
s in g e r /s o n g - w r ite r /g u ita r is t is
talking about the soul-searching
behind his rem arkable M elism a/
A ris ta d e b u t, T he A m e r ic a n .
A p a ro ’s so n g s are u rg e n t and
in sp irin g , an d c a p tu re th e full
breadth o f hum an em otion. They
are subtly arranged and m elodically
indelible, telling the story o f the
April 12, 2000
Focus
Page 5
A n g ie A p a r o , th e A m e r ic a n
c o m m o n m a n . A ric h a u ra l
landscape o f prim al g u itar and
insistent rhythm, o f strings and horns
and evocative vocals, The American
is m usic that will last. The album
introduces a voice w h o ’ll be around
for a long time: a street poet for the
21“ Century.
T he journey tow ard The Am erican
began roughly tw o years ago w hen
A ngie began collaborating w ith
producer M att Serletic (M atchbox
20, E dw in M cC ain, A erosm ith,
C o llec tiv e S oul). In a g en u in e
m eeting o f m inds, the pair traded
ideas and insights, w orking out how
best to derive the full m easure o f
m eaning from A p aro ’s m usic. ‘I’d
been w orking w ith a groove-box
for a long tim e, ju st com piling tape
after tape o f ideas,” A ngie says. “ I
w rite every day - generally starting
in the m orning, w hen I ju st open up
to a kind o f stream o f consciousness.
And about 90 percent o f the creati ng
happens w hen I’m driving in my car
- 1 get ideas that I shape into finished
songs later, I ju st follow the music.
The music knows what it’s supposed
to be.”
E ventually landing in studios in
A tla n ta (A n g ie ’s h o m e b a se ),
N ashville and M iami, A paro and
Serletic assem bled an ace corps o f
players to augm ent A n g ie’s guitar,
groovebox and spell-binding vocals.
T he m ethod they arrived at w as
em phatically collaborative, a real
syn erg y o f forces. F eeding the
players groove-box riffs and scratch
vocals. A paro began crafting, piece
by p iece, m usic o f an in ten se
im m ediacy. “W orking that way,
putting things together in the studio.
m ade the songs fresh for m e,” says
A ngie. “ It was a m ethod Matt and I
first cam e up with on ‘Spaceship,’
laying dow n about 40 tracks on the
song in a single day.”
S in g in g a b o u t fa m ily an d
fatherhood, ab o u t rom ance and
heartbreak, A paro creates a cycle
o f songs that illustrates the many
facets o f the human condition. And,
as h e p re p a re s to ta k e th is
rem arkable m usic on the road, h e ’s
thinking o f another kind o f sharing.
“To me, perform ing is about much
m ore th an even th e p erfo rm er
getting into the songs,” he says.
“T hat phenom enon happens, o f
co u rse , an d it’s am azin g . But
perform ing is an interchange: it’s
m u tu a l. F ro m a u d ie n c e to
perform er, there’s a gift going on.
It’s a co llectiv e ex perience, o f
people united - ju st by the simple
fact that w e ’re all hum an.”
Human, honest and real. T h at’s The
American. T h at’s A ngie Aparo.
Deep Soul CD brings back old funk sound
by
for
D anny B ell
T he P ortland O bserver
For you local o l’ schoolers back in
the day, rem em ber local stand-out
in the R& B arena like Lanny Hunt,
Frankie Redding and M ontereys?
This w as the era o f R u d y ’s Pool
Hall and the Cotton Club.
A m ong the bright and shining stars
o f the 60s and early 70s w as the lead
sin g e r o f th e M o n te re y s, U ral
Thom as. Ural has ju st released a
sel f-produced C D cal led “It’s a God
T hang.”
His voice is still in fine form , ju st as
m uch like the sm ooth, clearten o r o f
30 plus years ago. Since then, he
has am assed a w ealth o f experience
from perform ing with O tis Redding
to taking tim e out to raise his son.
But there is one thing that has been
constant - he has been true to m usic,
his craft and his art.
Ural T hom as w as a m essenger o f
funk before the phrase w as ever
turned. H is big hits “ D eep Soul”
and “T hing in G ” attest to that. On
this CD , he traverses terrain from
u p -te m p o to b a lla d s to e v e n
H endrix-like rock and roll. “ It’s in
the B ook,” the first cut on the CD , is
rem iniscent o f W ilson P ick e tt’s
school o f m usic, delivered in U ra l’s
unique, infectious way.
T he ballad “ Is A nybody O ut T here
(I M iss M y M om m a)” is a touching
and pow erful statem ent about a
ch ild ’s love for their m other. The
last cut “ Froggy” features a m ean
guitar solo.
For those o f you w ho are fans o f
Jim i H endrix, this cut is evocative
o fh is music. A lthough I w ould have
enjoyed m ore upbeat tunes on this
CD , Ural said that there will be
m ore on the next one. For those o f
you w ho are interested, Ural is back
to perform ing and can be reached at
503/281-0822.
A tlanta-based singer. A ngie Aparo fu se s the anger o f rock and
passion o f fo lk , the fir s t single. "Spaceship" investigates the
im pact o f m odern technology and its current relationship to
spirituality.
P hoto by S asha W a i . dman
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