Just wanted to say your cd is quite powerful and touching...the song about Wes is so moving...and I really like the wolf song...I know that Native American story well and have used it in reflections and sharing :)
I like the beginning and ending songs too...a nice wrap around the rest...I am still listening to the words of the other songs...envision if you will, me in the car ALONE...with the cd cranked UP high!
A cornucopia of life, well-lived
A review by Mark Sebastian Jordan
Sarah Goslee Reed: Plenty
11 tracks, 44 minutes
www.sarahgosleereed.com
www.cdbaby.com
Release date: May 2012
Sarah Goslee Reed's new album, Plenty, is her fifth and finest yet. The stated aim of the album is to celebrate life by sorting out the difference between wants and needs. But the unstated thread that binds it all together is community, for the rural Ohio songwriter knits together contributions from supporting musicians, family, friends and even local schoolchildren to fill a cornucopia with life, well-lived. Now, lest this sound like soppy, feel-good platitudes, don't doubt that Reed knows and shows that joy only takes its full luster when it emerges from the shadows of loss and sorrow. That's life, and this album lives.
The opening song, “All Living Things” might seem disingenuous at first glance, with its guileless lyrics about what living things need in order to live. But the tune was actually co-written with the first graders of Dan Emmett Elementary School in Reed's hometown of Mount Vernon, Ohio, as a workshop project called Songs of Science. Here, the gentle, upbeat song is redone with a reverberant weave of backing vocals provided by Reed's daughter, Meredith Irwin, and talented Mount Vernon teen musician Candace Jaymes.
“The Timeless Rocker” moves with an appropriate easy, rocking motion as it recalls the history of a rocking chair used over the years for relaxation, friendly conversation, and rocking children to sleep. Likewise, the song “Mystery” finds the deep meaning in a piece of household furniture, this time meditating on a sturdy, hand-built antique table passed down through generations of the songwriter's family. Since the table in question came to Reed from her father, George Goslee—the long-time principal bassoon of the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra—the production features an intertwining duet of bassoons—one synthesized by co-producer and recording engineer Celeste Friedman, and one genuine article, played by Claire Matlak.
But the quiet joys of domestic life are far from the only subject touched upon in this big-hearted record. The stark and philosophical song “Feed the Right Wolf” was inspired by the book Taking the Leap by Pema Chödrön, which includes the tale of a Native American boy who asks his grandfather for guidance on how to live a life of goodness. The grandfather advises him that every person has two wolves in his heart, one kind and bright, one mean and dark. The chorus ominously repeats the grandfather's dire admonition to “feed the right wolf.” Half way through, the song takes a sudden step into a higher key, perhaps an old musical trick, but one which feels here like a gust of cold wind. The native flute and percussion provided at the end by Friedman are haunting.
Sowing and reaping return like cycles of seasons throughout the album. The loping country melody of “We Planted Trees Today” is enriched with a chorus of backing voices, evoking the sense of community and living not merely in the moment, but on behalf of the future generations who will follow by planting trees. The lyrics for the song were provided to Reed in the form of a poem by Danville, Ohio, resident Frank Goulde, moved to write the first poem of his life in order to salute friends engaged in planting trees for future “children to climb and adults to hold in awe.” The song “Potpourri” uses fresh, surprising chord progressions and shifts of time signature as well as lovely harmonies to catch the spirit of the garden of life when “a hint of spring drifts through the air.” And on the final track, “Garden of Plenty,” the rhythm section of Tom Martin on bass and Skip Trask on drums are joined by Darell Sanson's mandolin to form a backing band that fits Reed's vibrant vocal and rhythm guitar as comfortably as a favorite pair of slippers. If I ever have another person ask why I, as a writer, choose to live in sleepy rural Ohio instead of in a happening central metropolis, I will play them this. If they don't get it from this song's dappled-green joy, they won't ever get it.
Other songs reflective of the losses and joys of life include “The Piano,” which isn't really about a piano at all, but rather an examination of the secret talents and interests we all too often don't hear about until people are gone, brought on by the remembrance of the songwriter's late mother, who died young, but recently would have been 88 had she lived. The song also features an expressive cello solo played by Luis Biava. “Used Guitars and Violins” tells the engaging story of delightful discoveries made when detouring from the planned path, while “Circle of Hands” was written by Reed as a wedding gift to her daughter and son-in-law.
But if one song will touch a nerve on this album, it is the plaintive yet consoling “The Hole in His Heart.” The song was written to help assuage the grief of a family the songwriter knows who lost a teenage grandson to suicide. The boy, Wesley Garrett, seemed to be handling a school bullying situation reasonably well. But one day he retreated to the family's barn and shot himself. The song gently evokes the sense of family shattered by loss in a bright, yet plain-spoken major key. But when a a sonorous French horn, played by Gian Garduque, climbs out of the depths to join in from a lonely distance as Reed sings “so what can we do if we've a big empty space?” it sends a chill up the spine. Everyone knows someone who needs to hear this song.
Production and arrangements by Martin and Friedman are rich, as is the recorded sound. Reed's de facto band of Trask and Martin, plus a changing cast of soloists and backup singers, give the record an almost orchestral diversity of sound, yet they all gel together in the classic tight-yet-loose manner of the best bands. Even the album's packaging is as rich and beautiful as its contents. The disc is available from Reed at live performances, as well as through her website, www.sarahgosleereed.com. It is also available through www.cdbaby.com.
Mark Sebastian Jordan has been an active presence on the Ohio arts scene for twenty-five years. His popular “Mansfield Trilogy” of historical dramas has been performed at Malabar Farm State Park in Lucas since 2003, when his award-winning play Ceely was debuted. The second play, Phoebe, was introduced in 2005, and the third, Louie, premiered in 2010. The works have received awards and acclaim from the Ohio Theatre Alliance, the Mansfield/Richland County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Richland County Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.
Jordan is also a poet who has performed all over the state of Ohio. His chapbook The Book of Jobs is available from Pudding House Press, while his poems have won awards from The Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, and the Ohio Poetry Association. His poems have appeared in The Case Reserve Review, Pudding Magazine, Lit Bit, and Full of Crow.
Jordan's humorous mock-history book 1776 and All That: A Complete History of the United States, or at Least as Much of It as Can Be Recalled Without Actually Looking Anything Up was published by XOXOX Press in 2010. Jordan has also worked as a journalist for High Fidelity Review, MusicWeb International, the Newark Advocate, the Mount Vernon News, the Black Swamp Trader & Firelands Gazette, and others.
Jordan is currently the Resident Manager of the H. I. Malabar Farm hostel in Lucas, Ohio, where he regularly regales guests with historical storytelling.
Music with Older Kids
Songwriting in the Classroom
by Sarah Goslee Reed
Last year, I collaborated with the music teacher Laura Ackert at Dan Emmett Elementary School in Mount Vernon, Ohio, to write a song with students at every grade level in the school. The students brainstormed ideas; Laura and I studied them, and we noticed there were many about animals, nature, the environment, etc. This seemed like a great theme to pursue,and the topics that they had chosen all relate to something that each grade learns in science. Wow! The songs range from what kinds of animals live in Ohio to the life cycles of a tree and a duck-billed platypus. There is a great song about the chemistry of water called “It’s Messy at the Melting Point,” a song about gravity and one about “The Three New R’s” as in Reduce, Recycle and Reuse, as opposed to reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic.
The chorus for each song was begun by me as a jumping-off point, and was usually finished by the first class I met with. Each group brainstormed ideas for the topic though, and everything was written on the board the first time I met with each class, giving everyone equal chances to make a point known. As we started writing, the music teacher wrote lines and rhyming ideas on the board too—sometimes it was quite a mess!
What we wrote was then presented to the next class coming in and sung for them. They could suggest changes to the previous class’s work but not change it themselves. Then they would start writing their verse and the process would continue. After the students learned the songs, we recorded them onto a CD, whose cover design came from a school-wide contest, which was sound engineered by Laura’s husband, Brian Ackert. The “CD release party” was a school concert in which each grade sang their composition. The Songs of Science CDs were sold for $5 each, as a fundraiser for the school. And we got great feedback from the community:
“The love of music that you have
instilled in the students at DE is immeasurable. Thank you for spreading and sharing your amazing talents and love of music with the students in our district. I would be honored to purchase a CD of your recorded music.”
“Thank you for a wonderful presentation. I was telling my research assistant about it this morning. The song was delightful!”
In a subsequent songwriting project, Laura and I improved our methodology by writing our students’ song ideas on big rolls of paper that could be rolled up and brought back out for further use when fine tuning the writing. This proved much easier than using the chalkboard, from which we had to frantically copy and erase our notes between each group of students. The accompanying photos of the fourth and fifth graders writing and singing at Dan Emmett Elementary School were taken by Laura and Brian Ackert.
CAPTIONED PHOTOS FROM THIS ARTICLE (AND PROJECT) ARE FOUND IN THE PHOTO GALLERY
Sarah Goslee Reed is a singer/songwriter who lives in Mount Vernon, Ohio. She has been performing in the area for over 20 years, has recorded CDs for both children and adults and has worked with almost every elementary school and library in town.