A favor to a friend -

She wants feedback, and anyone who asks me for it...well.

Because I was brought up well by the Home Team (accept no substitutes)*, I hereby present you with both a review and a critique. Because, as I was taught - you never offer your opinion in a review; that's not the place for it. A critique is where you pull something part, look at it and say WOW or WHOA about it.

There are a lot of folks on the FL who know cadhla. There are a lot of folks who've never read any of her entries, even when I've recommended her every time I've mentioned her. She's one of those people you enjoy knowing, as much as you're allowed - she's of general good cheer, fair as it is possible to be (even when going WTF over a convention sniping) and genuinely likes her audiences. She writes prolifically, often in tightly structured poetry and lyrical verse. She also does artwork; she did a set of icons as commission pieces once - and I see a number of them still in circulation. They are much like her - happy, light-hearted and never takes anything so seriously it would die from smothering - but she does pay attention to the details. Oh very yes.

She's also an avid filker...which leads us to this point.

I knew she sang, I knew she wrote music and was often happiest in a room of people who loved doing just the same. A testament to this was her election to Toastmaster at OVFF last year. As such, a performance was in store.

I wasn't there. But a whole buncha people were. I am given to understand that it was a Once In A Lifetime. While filkers, as a bunch, could live on only cassette recordings alone - when there's enough interest, there could be a CD pressing!

And so it was.

I missed the original order group; too broke. When the opportunity to get in on the second wave came, so to speak, I jumped at it.

I really wanted to give this the attention it was due; I finally threw up my hands and took it in the car this week. I don't know any of the material the filk refers to - I know nothing about Martin's Passage, or any of the other references. None of them.

So I have to listen to the material - and take it in as it's presented, lyrics and music - on its own merits. You want to pay attention, under those circumstances, right?

The Review

Pretty Little Dead Girl - Seannan McGuire and Friends Live at OVFF 2005 is a set of acoustic recordings done live in front of a very cooperative audience as a command performance capping a major filk convention in Ohio in 2005. Lyrically intricate, the the melodies capture your attention as you can hear every word sung clearly and succinctly; the music rises and falls as easily as a gentle breeze and you find yourself drawn into a mood that would be just at much at home in a nightclub setting as seated around a campfire. Recommended.

Okay. Gloves off.

( The Critique. The Good, the Bad, The OMG SHINY )

Seannan has made "Sycamore Tree" available for download over at Filk Archive (go there anyway, it's bright, shiny and full of wonderful things; registration is not all that and a side of fries, c'mon!), search for "Sycamore Tree." If you want to hear the rest of the album? Order one for yourself. She mails the discs out by hand-carrying the orders on her back riding BART, for crying out loud. That's love for you.

And it sounds fabulous in the car.

*The Home Team? Anyone who remembers the old Starsky & Hutch Letterzine can tell you about the Home Team. I was a punkass of 19 when they schooled me, lemme tellya.

A favor to a friend -

She wants feedback, and anyone who asks me for it...well.

Because I was brought up well by the Home Team (accept no substitutes)*, I hereby present you with both a review and a critique. Because, as I was taught - you never offer your opinion in a review; that's not the place for it. A critique is where you pull something part, look at it and say WOW or WHOA about it.

There are a lot of folks on the FL who know cadhla. There are a lot of folks who've never read any of her entries, even when I've recommended her every time I've mentioned her. She's one of those people you enjoy knowing, as much as you're allowed - she's of general good cheer, fair as it is possible to be (even when going WTF over a convention sniping) and genuinely likes her audiences. She writes prolifically, often in tightly structured poetry and lyrical verse. She also does artwork; she did a set of icons as commission pieces once - and I see a number of them still in circulation. They are much like her - happy, light-hearted and never takes anything so seriously it would die from smothering - but she does pay attention to the details. Oh very yes.

She's also an avid filker...which leads us to this point.

I knew she sang, I knew she wrote music and was often happiest in a room of people who loved doing just the same. A testament to this was her election to Toastmaster at OVFF last year. As such, a performance was in store.

I wasn't there. But a whole buncha people were. I am given to understand that it was a Once In A Lifetime. While filkers, as a bunch, could live on only cassette recordings alone - when there's enough interest, there could be a CD pressing!

And so it was.

I missed the original order group; too broke. When the opportunity to get in on the second wave came, so to speak, I jumped at it.

I really wanted to give this the attention it was due; I finally threw up my hands and took it in the car this week. I don't know any of the material the filk refers to - I know nothing about Martin's Passage, or any of the other references. None of them.

So I have to listen to the material - and take it in as it's presented, lyrics and music - on its own merits. You want to pay attention, under those circumstances, right?

The Review

Pretty Little Dead Girl - Seannan McGuire and Friends Live at OVFF 2005 is a set of acoustic recordings done live in front of a very cooperative audience as a command performance capping a major filk convention in Ohio in 2005. Lyrically intricate, the the melodies capture your attention as you can hear every word sung clearly and succinctly; the music rises and falls as easily as a gentle breeze and you find yourself drawn into a mood that would be just at much at home in a nightclub setting as seated around a campfire. Recommended.

Okay. Gloves off.

( The Critique. The Good, the Bad, The OMG SHINY )

Seannan has made "Sycamore Tree" available for download over at Filk Archive (go there anyway, it's bright, shiny and full of wonderful things; registration is not all that and a side of fries, c'mon!), search for "Sycamore Tree." If you want to hear the rest of the album? Order one for yourself. She mails the discs out by hand-carrying the orders on her back riding BART, for crying out loud. That's love for you.

And it sounds fabulous in the car.

*The Home Team? Anyone who remembers the old Starsky & Hutch Letterzine can tell you about the Home Team. I was a punkass of 19 when they schooled me, lemme tellya.

A favor to a friend -

She wants feedback, and anyone who asks me for it...well.

Because I was brought up well by the Home Team (accept no substitutes)*, I hereby present you with both a review and a critique. Because, as I was taught - you never offer your opinion in a review; that's not the place for it. A critique is where you pull something part, look at it and say WOW or WHOA about it.

There are a lot of folks on the FL who know cadhla. There are a lot of folks who've never read any of her entries, even when I've recommended her every time I've mentioned her. She's one of those people you enjoy knowing, as much as you're allowed - she's of general good cheer, fair as it is possible to be (even when going WTF over a convention sniping) and genuinely likes her audiences. She writes prolifically, often in tightly structured poetry and lyrical verse. She also does artwork; she did a set of icons as commission pieces once - and I see a number of them still in circulation. They are much like her - happy, light-hearted and never takes anything so seriously it would die from smothering - but she does pay attention to the details. Oh very yes.

She's also an avid filker...which leads us to this point.

I knew she sang, I knew she wrote music and was often happiest in a room of people who loved doing just the same. A testament to this was her election to Toastmaster at OVFF last year. As such, a performance was in store.

I wasn't there. But a whole buncha people were. I am given to understand that it was a Once In A Lifetime. While filkers, as a bunch, could live on only cassette recordings alone - when there's enough interest, there could be a CD pressing!

And so it was.

I missed the original order group; too broke. When the opportunity to get in on the second wave came, so to speak, I jumped at it.

I really wanted to give this the attention it was due; I finally threw up my hands and took it in the car this week. I don't know any of the material the filk refers to - I know nothing about Martin's Passage, or any of the other references. None of them.

So I have to listen to the material - and take it in as it's presented, lyrics and music - on its own merits. You want to pay attention, under those circumstances, right?

The Review

Pretty Little Dead Girl - Seannan McGuire and Friends Live at OVFF 2005 is a set of acoustic recordings done live in front of a very cooperative audience as a command performance capping a major filk convention in Ohio in 2005. Lyrically intricate, the the melodies capture your attention as you can hear every word sung clearly and succinctly; the music rises and falls as easily as a gentle breeze and you find yourself drawn into a mood that would be just at much at home in a nightclub setting as seated around a campfire. Recommended.

Okay. Gloves off.

( The Critique. The Good, the Bad, The OMG SHINY )

Seannan has made "Sycamore Tree" available for download over at Filk Archive (go there anyway, it's bright, shiny and full of wonderful things; registration is not all that and a side of fries, c'mon!), search for "Sycamore Tree." If you want to hear the rest of the album? Order one for yourself. She mails the discs out by hand-carrying the orders on her back riding BART, for crying out loud. That's love for you.

And it sounds fabulous in the car.

*The Home Team? Anyone who remembers the old Starsky & Hutch Letterzine can tell you about the Home Team. I was a punkass of 19 when they schooled me, lemme tellya.