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| Re-Ligio [ discuss this review ] |
| band: Jane Siberry (Issa) |
| Album: With What Will I Keep Warm . . . |
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Jane Siberry (Issa)
"With What Will I Keep Warm . . ."
Re-Ligio
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
~ Isaiah 2:4
“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved."
~ George MacDonald
“For to do things with care is the closest thing to love that I know
the cape of grace falling softly about the shoulders
as we focus on the task at hand
whether it be to listen
or to leave
or to learn.”
~ Jane Siberry
It is a cliché for a performer to tell the audience "I love you," but it is truly astonishing for an artist to trust the world with her songs. Jane Siberry has taken that leap of faith with steely resolve to give her albums to anyone as a gift from Jane, or in exchange for a promise to do something good, or in exchange for any sum of money, or for market value. "The response from people is so positive that it confirms that it's the right way to go, and I'll sink or swim by it." She has simplified her life by selling her house and giving away many of her possessions. For a time, she changed her name to Issa, which is a variant of Isaiah, but now she has given up even that lovely coinage to return to her given name because it was time to do so. She trusted me. I was sent her new album "With What Will I Keep Warm," but when I noticed that this album was the second in a trilogy, I purchased the first part in "Dragon Dreams" according to one of the options on her site. I trust her. I did right by her in that purchase, trust me. I really do want you to trust me.
What may be most astonishing of all to me is that these albums are not sermons, but suites of songs as personal and sensual as the subconscious. Siberry seems to employ a montage technique in the creation of these little tuneful worlds, which may include several transitions in each song similar to movements in a symphony. The instruments seem to follow her voice, with other voices occasionally answering or commenting, in a manner close to the classical notion of tempo rubato along with the call and response of a liturgy, R&B, soul or gospel. To be technically accurate, the tempo may not fluctuate all that much, but the arrangements seem to envelope her voice as though they were responding to her directly and in the moment. These two albums take the long-form departures of her last Warner Brothers record "When I Was A Boy" a step further to my ears. The familiar pop structures of verse, bridge and chorus have all but left the building. I believe Jane is singing a new song.
"I am a religious person...and by 'religion' I mean re-ligio, the re-tying of a bond...restoring the legato of life. Life divides man into many pieces...There is no weightier occupation than the recomposition of spiritual integrity through the composition of music."
~Sofia Gubaidulina (Tatar and Russian composer sometimes compared to Shostakovich)
It seemed clear to me from the album "When I Was A Boy" that Siberry was up to something unique in my experience, and that album has been a touchstone for me in times of depression, heartbreak, or just to get connected to both my own passion and emotions in a larger context of a connected world. Composer Gubaidulina's dedication to a specific definition of religion combined with that master's extraordinary music offer a parallel to Siberry that accounts for more than any other description. "There is no weightier occupation than the recomposition of spiritual integrity through the composition of music." Sofia's words hit me like a brick, or a knife, or prophecy. Jane writes about love in many forms, side-by-side, co-existing, and connected to planetary, empathetic, spiritual and personal love. In her songs, these loves are connected as though inseparable. Dragon Dreams and With What Will I Keep Warm . . ." seem to come from Siberry's dreams, but also from her experience. A deep experience with these albums leads me to a disorienting place from which my point of view needs to be reassembled to face the day in the normal way. I nearly fear I won't come back together the same, but that turns out to be a good thing. These albums are a thematic excursion into an all-embracing point of view from which I return with my fist relaxed into an open hand. I watch the news or visit with friends and hear of the phone calls not made, resentment, fear, and famine, but in this frame of mind there seem to be responses to the problems borne of an integrated character, set of values, higher law and higher love. If someone is in chains, I don't feel free; someone hungry, I'm not full; someone angry, I see the sorrow in their eyes.
Jane Siberry is at home in the world because she has chosen to call the world her home. She lives between concerts in the city where she played or the next city on her tour. I am somewhat defined by the two black chairs in my living room, that pillow top queen sized bed, the Farberware, my apartment and car to name a few. Those things are an extension and reminder of who I am. Jane has two dresses and a great pair of boots, a guitar, and a backpack with some organic food. She isn't what she owns, so I guess she must be what she does. These albums seem to have that unfettered freedom of a person whose connection with the world is at once familiar and transitory. She has conversations with people about their lives and that may be as much as anything her experience of the news of the day. She met some kids who had no place to get together, so they took to meeting at a bench. The town complained of the noise the teenagers made, so they took away the bench. Jane has tried to intervene so the teenagers would have a place to meet, be loud, and get together. The song Phoenix (For The Teenagers) tells that true story, and Jane confirmed in a radio interview the ongoing progress of her friendship with these young people and a continuing effort to get someplace for them. The song is poetic, but the story is accurate. She lived that tune.
I'm gonna live the life I sing about in my song
I'm gonna stand for right and always shun the wrong
If I'm in the crowd, If I'm alone
On the streets or in my home
I'm gonna live the life I sing about in my song
~ Thomas A. Dorsey (known as "the father of gospel music")
My brother died a few years back. He was a notable scholar of wisdom literature in the Old Testament. He taught me the function of a prophet was to lead people into a better future. The purpose of prophecy was to "get our act in order." I have come to believe that Jane Siberry functions as such a person in my life. She may not use the name Issa (Isaiah) in public now, but her creative decisions in everyday life are a touchstone for me. Her namesake Isaiah told of a peaceful future in a time of war with the Assyrians in a prosperous Babylonian society that was corrupting the integrity of the visiting Israeli nation. He gave a homeless nation hope, and offered a challenge to live according to a higher law and a higher love. Jane presents me with a similar challenge to give and receive love to those around me, consider myself to have found a home, to work for peace in a troubled time, and to discover life in my own survival. She has done all that without compromising her rich vision of musical forms including asymmetric time signatures, clusters or chords closer to Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel than anything in recent pop, and her restless combinations of images and melodies akin to the unguarded world of subconscious thought. She has chosen to shine her light. I needed that.
THE SONGS
With What Will I Keep Warm . . .
(This is the second of a story told in three parts)
"Why would an all-loving, all-knowing God allow people to experience pain and suffering>"
~ The question C.S. Lewis attempts to answer in his book "The Problem of Pain"
The songs on this album are written in a flow of images like some masterful and cryptic verse from William Blake, St. John of the Cross, or Charles Wright (Pulitzer for Poetry 1998). I've been taught that poems are puzzles but the best of them are solved in the life of the listener. I find these images lead me into a deeper part of the forest where my own issues and images are waiting to be incorporated into thought. Tonight I am contemplating the loss of my nephew David, who died too young and in the jarring confusion of schizophrenia. I haven't been able to incorporate his loss into my life. As Jane/Issa sings of loss and separation, I'm swimming in that dark pool of my own contemplation. Songs can heal the rifts in my life, and without them some memories might fester. It may be that this journey was triggered by watching the second episode of Doc Martin on Netflix, but that's the path I'm on while listening tonight. I feel tonight that this album called With What Will I Keep Warm . . . is a meditation on the philosophical "Problem of Pain." No solution will be found, but the mystery must be faced. I'm in need of mystic poetry. My brother Jerry told me that scripture offered wisdom to deal with suffering I was going to go through anyway. This album is most certainly wisdom literature in that classic sense of the term. I take this walk with a rod and a staff to steady me. I'm less afraid.
1. Eden (Can't Get This Body Thing Right)
"There will be more gardens and beauty
And apples and serpents
And wisdom and children
And families and tribes
And nations and wars
And darkness, intolerance
Hatred, separation, kindness
Hatred, separation . . .
Kindness Kindness Kindness
And Love"
~ Jane Siberry from the song Eden
(Note Jane's masterful use of lists in a lyric as a recurring poetic device. ~ Billy)
Sideshow:
I went to look up the story of Adam and Eve on the Internet, and found the page linked to a pop up screen with the headline: "Featured: Weight Loss Your New Years Resolution? Britney admits how she lost weight to Jay Leno." I'm not really superstitious, but that coincidence gives me chills. Is there a conceptual link between the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise and the modern obsession with weight loss? In this song and that page of the Internet, there most certainly is a connection. Go figure! I have no clue. I find this quite eerie. Here's the link:
http://www.dltk-bible.com/genesis/chapter2-kjv.htm
This is the pop up:
http://www.news3insider.com/health/Britney-weight-loss.html
Back to the Song
"We are stardust
Billion-year-old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."
~ From Woodstock by Joni Mitchell
"And
out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant
to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of
the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."
~ Genesis 2:9
There are no body-image problems in any of the literature related to the Garden of Eden. Can it be that the problem of self, and the consequence of bulimia, anorexia, obesity, etc. are consequences of Adam and Eve eating the "forbidden fruit" also known as the fruit of the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil?" The notion of Paradise is a dream of life in balance, and leaving that metaphorical garden is to wander in a world of consequences. What was lost in the leaving? Will we ever get back to the garden? Siberry begins this song with a farewell to love, and the question of a return. A truly disturbing recurring thought breaks in: "Just can't get this body thing right / Just can't get this body thing right." The story of Adam and Eve folds into the song and leads to the joining of the two ideas in the question, "Why can't I live on an apple and an apple seed?" Those elements reflect on each other like three images in a painting by Salvador Dali or Pieter Bruegel. The resolution of those elements must be found in the listener, and I find myself feeling my way through the song a little differently each time. That's the hallmark of a great poem or high art in my experience. It works, but I don't know how.
"It gets to seem as if way back in the Garden of Eden after the Fall, Adam and Eve had begged the Lord to forgive them and He, in his boundless exasperation, had said, 'All 'right, then. Stay. Stay in the Garden. Get civilized. Procreate. Muck it up.' And they did."
~ Diane Arbus
“The flame from the angel's sword in the garden of Eden has been catalyzed into the atom bomb; God's thunderbolt became blunted, so man's thunderbolt has become the steel star of destruction.”
~ Irish playwright Sean O'Casey
Issa: vocals, organ, keyboards, loops
Pauline Kim: violin, viola
James Roe: oboe
Rich Brown: bass and bg vocals
2. Hide Not Your Light
"I found it ~ I found it lonely
I hid it (she hid her light) I hid it well
I hid my light under a bushel
When it could have helped me see my way"
~ From "Hide Not Your Light"
"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."
~ Matthew 5:15 (King James Version)
Issa: vocals, guitar
John MacArthur Ellis: guitars, mandolin
Gyan, Leslie Alexander, Marlon Saunders, Gail Anne Dorsey: vocals
3. This Is Not The Way
"HEADLINE
School bus, soldiers, gas masks
Machine guns, terrorist drill
Running through the bus
Children watching from the schoolyard
Bus driver, retired, war veteran
He turns to the T.V. camera
He tries to say . . .
He says . . .
Choking . . .
This
This is
This is NOT
THIS IS NOT THE WAY THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE"
~ From "This Is Not The Way"
Issa: vocals, guitar, organ, drum loops with Sheldon
Catherine Russell, Marion Saunders: vocals
I searched the Internet for the phrase "this is not the way things are supposed to be," and the following sermon came up. This is a night for coincidences. The subject of the sermon is Isaiah, Chapter 2:
Nelson Mandela said in his 1953 Presidential Speech that “there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”
* * *
" What the [Isaiah] is here saying, both literally and figuratively, is that part of what keeps us from banquets on mountaintops are those garments of mourning that we all wear. Who here knows the feeling? I mean it. Who among us has not reached for our party shoes and felt held back by the weight and exhaustion of grief? I hardly need to translate or illustrate this because it cuts right to the heart of our experience. Sure, we can put on a happy face, but rarely can we remove for ourselves that veil that hangs between us and the rest of the world when we are grieving. It could be a grief for those who have died, those saints who are known to us - those who raised us, those who have sat in the pews next to us, those who have been our friends and family, near or far. It could be a grief for saints unknown, those who we read about in the prayers or in the papers, those who have died through acts of war or violence. It could even be grief for a lost innocence, or for some traumatic experience, or for whatever moment when we have found our hearts crying out This 'is not the way things are supposed to be in this world! The prophet [Isaiah] acknowledges that this weight of sorrow, this garment of mourning and heartache is real for all peoples, and all nations." But he doesn't stop there . . .
~ From the sermon by Rev. Daniel A. Smith at First Church in Cambridge on Isaiah, Chapter 2 (http://www.firstchurchcambridge.org/sermons/show/165)
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
~ Isaiah 2:4
4. Phoenix (for teenagers)
"Children
What do you need
To feel safe in this world?
Finally they trust me
They watch for me every day
We sit on the cold cement floor
They've got so much to say"
~ From "Phoenix"
"The earliest representation of the phoenix is found in the ancient Egyptian Bennu bird, the name relating to the verb 'weben,' meaning 'to rise brilliantly,' 'or to shine'."
~ From New World Encyclopedia
This song is a true story. The complete lyrics tell the story in some detail. I heard an interview in preparation for this review in which Siberry confirmed the details. While she was living in England, her path took her by a building where a bunch of teenagers got together to play their music on a boom box and hang out. The neighbors complained of the noise, so the city took away the bench they were sitting on. Jane reached out to them, and eventually won their trust. She asked them what they would need to feel safe. At the time of the interview, a continuing effort was ongoing to provide someplace for the teenagers to hang. Sadly, the opinion of the locals was that these kids were a lost cause. Jane found that they had a lot to say, and had a good idea what they needed. I have long believed that one of the kindest things anyone can do for another is to listen. This little story isn't earthshaking, but it may be indicative of something lost in society. Those teenagers aren't a lost cause. The problem is outlined in one of Jane's great lists, and it may be declension of the decline of a generation:
"It's a downward spiral
And the more the villagers fear
The more they reject
And the more they reject
The more hurt, confused
Angry, belligerent and louder
The teenagers the children get"
Who is Jane Siberry trying to help? The answer is in the song:
"Michael
Marshall
Caithlyn
Ciara
Caointiorn
Tearlag
Llewelyn
Brianag
Oh, has anyone ever told you how beautiful
Told you how needed
All you know is something is wrong
Well, hold on to your song
Because in this Babel of darkness
A new music
A new language
Is being born."
“It's best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes.”
~ Anne Baxter
5. In My Dream
"I'm running along with my family
We're running through the leaves
We're running along in slow motion
We are laughing
We are happy
No one's missing
We are holy in my dream
In my dream
In my dream
We are holy in my dream"
No one is missing in this dream. The family is together. The music of this song has the resolve of a major scale, which has as rare in current melodies. It is beautiful. There is a poignant pain in the hope of reuniting. A dream like this can bring tears to my eyes. I've begun to come to terms with the missing members of my family. This dream could break my heart, but without such hope I may not be feeling much of anything. Only love can break your heart, but without it there wouldn't be anything worth a damn. Without love, there would be nothing more than gongs and cymbals signifying nothing. I miss my family. I love the ones I've come to call my family. I love the ones I am missing. It hurts, but that's the price I pay for living. This song is beautiful, but it hurts a little.
“Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.”
~ Eskimo Proverb
Issa: vocals, piano, guitar, keyboard horns/clarinet
Pauline Kim: violin, viola
Christine Kim: cello
James Roe: oboe
John MacArthur Ellis: pedal steel
6. Further in the Garden
"I knew it was you by the way
You leaned forward in the garden and said:
How beautiful!
Your brow luminous
Your eyes shining
The signature spiral on the back of your head
Entwining with the roses and the stairway
What has caused this change?
The fruit of your labour.
The eye of the hurricane
Moving up from the firmament
And through your stance against darkness
Your jaw firm and relaxed
Spirit as music coursing through your veins
Separating the vertebrae in your spine
I will never forget your kindness
Your invitation to be well"
This vision in verse is a song in spoken word. These images are a puzzle to me, and the meaning of the poem is somewhat opaque to my analysis. I have a feeling about it's meaning. I suggestion the reader feel the way through it. The music is in the words. As W.H. Auden once told a composer who wanted to set his poems to music, "I thought I already had!" The best definition of a poem is the poem itself. I'll leave this one to your own heart. Have a feeling and that should tell you what you need to know.
" Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash."
~ Leonard Cohen
7. Take Me To My Tent
"I surprised him with speed
My sword hit it's mark
But as he fell to the ground
My horse stumbled, I tumbled upon him
We lay breast to breast
We lay there like lovers
And what happened then I cannot say
* * *
I must have killed a hundred men
An so they'll say in minstrel song
I will go down in history
A hero of Brotherhood-Gone-Wrong"
I have no doubt whatsoever this is a song taken from some great fiction in history. It is astonishing to find this war ballad on this album. This story is one of a General confronting his "mortal enemy" on the field of battle only to recognize his brotherhood with the enemy he has killed. Robert Bly's story "Iron John" talks of the transition between the Red Knight, Black Knight and the White Knight, as a road to compassion. Young soldiers are taught to dehumanize the enemy, and every country in the world prefers a young soldier as a recruit. Young men fight for a cause. Older and wiser soldiers may recognize themselves in the face of the enemy. The protagonist in this song knows his accomplishments have made him a hero of "brother-gone-wrong." Such doubt is the beginning of wisdom. Whatever else one may say of the enemy, he is part of the brotherhood of mankind. I will continue to look for the poem, story or history that became this song. It's a good story. There may be those who long for an enemy worthy of all out war. Young men with limited weapons may believe in that black and white world, but nations with big weapons can destroy a world with that kind of thinking. This song could start the discussion to end a war among nations, but can it end a war on a concept? It's a good song.
"War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality."
~ John McCain
Issa: vocals, guitar, keyboards
Pauline Kim: violin, viola
Christine Kim: cello
James Roe: oboe
Rich Brown: bass
Sheldon Zaharko: triangle
8. Tiny Lies Are Killing Me
"tiny lies are hilling me
somedays I know, I know
somedays even lipstick is a lie
but this song is true"
~ The complete lyric of "Tiny Lies Are Killing Me"
"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: And 'this, too, shall pass away.'"
~ Abraham Lincoln
Issa: vocals, piano, organ, cello/harp/oboe, grouse mating call, keyboard cello/harp/oboe
Pauline Kim: violin
Rich Brown: bass
9. Then We Heard A Shout
"Then we heard a cry
A phoenix lifted up
So terrible to see
So terrible to hear
The ripping of our lives
The sound of Music breaking
da da. . .
Oh let there never be separation again"
This is a marvelous song. I don't have a handle on its meaning, but it's a great journey. I suspect this tune is a chronicle of Jane's personal epiphany. It's beautiful, even if I don't understand the vision. I hope someday to understand it better. It may be that I don't dare to hope for such a moment in my own life.
Issa: vocals, piano, organ, keyboard pipes/electric guitar soloing, loops
Jacob Switzer, Paige Escoffrey-Stewart, Ruby Salvatore Palmer, Alyson Palmer, Catherine Russell, Marion Saunders, Elizabeth Ziff, Gail Anne Dorsey, Susie Stewart, Maggie Moore, John Switzer, Amy Ziff: vocals
Pauline Kim: violin, viola
Christine Kim: cello
10. Mama Hereby
"Let us hereby agre
With love and dignity
From now on my life is mine
And you are free
Don't cry, Mama
This is not goodbye, Mama
Try, Mama,
Be light, Mama
Like with your friends, Mama
Be light for me
You know anytime
You come to me with love
My arms will always always always
Always always always always
My arms will always be open to you"
I met Joni Mitchell three times because of my cat Sam. She talked to me about cats all three times. We had not one conversation about music. We did have one exchange about a song, and it was the song about her mother refusing to accept her long relationship with a lover she had not married. Joni was visibly upset about that lack of acceptance. The pain was fresh. Our meeting came about because Sam used to ride my shoulder down the street, and I lived outside a neighborhood where Joni bought her groceries and put gas in her car. The relationship with a parent is so precious and deep, the pain of disapproval can last a lifetime. I don't know what separation Jane Siberry may feel or for what reason. She has been out of the closet for many years, and I could guess that may be a rift. It may be her decision to sell her house and live according to her calling. I don't know. This song is very personal, and I could sing it to my father. I lost him a few years ago, but his words still sting. He told me when he had come out of a coma, "I don't dislike you as much as you think I do." I said the same to him to make it a joke, but it wasn't. In a perfect world . . . Oh, I don't know. I lived most of my life trying to please my father, and he died before we reconciled. This song is an open love letter to a mother. My own mother accepted me when no other member of my family seemed to believe in me. My father and I were never close. That still bothers me. I tell all my friends to cherish all those uncomfortable times at holidays with their family. Those memories will be precious, even though it may be difficult to sit at the table with family sometimes. The day will come when those dinners are impossible.
I had a glorious moment with my mother near the end of her life. It may be the memory I cherish most:
Billy Sheppard: "I must have been a terror as a child."
Emma Sheppard: [Angrily] "No you weren't! You used to help me in the garden. Your brother and sister would have never done that!"
Issa: vocals, piano, guitar, keyboards
Pauline Kim: violin, viola
Christine Kim: cello
James Roe: oboe
11. Walk on Water
"I'd give anything to hear your voice
To wash your feet, anything . . .
I knelt down in helplessness
And then I felt Virtue flow to me
Come up, my brother
Come up, my sister
Come up, my children
And walk on water with me
Oh, that was the night of nights
I stood against the sea in a strange starlight
I felt the wind upon my face
I thought I heard my name
I thought I heard our names"
~ From "Walk on Water
This album is a kind of cantata, musical theater or perhaps a set of hymns against the machine. In that specific form of prophecy complete with a promise found in Isaiah, this album is prophetic. Jane Siberry (Issa) isn't a preacher. These songs aren't self-congratulatory anthems for the faithful. This album offers hope against a sea of troubles. Some of us are drowning in that sea. Jane has found a way to float above the disaster of politics and commercialism by employing the lost art of trusting people, listening to teenagers, and singing songs in living rooms. This album seeks to reconnect to a source long lost for many of us. I'm an agnostic, but that doesn't limit my ability to embrace the hope of Jane Siberry's path. She has faith. I admire her for that more than I can say. I don't hear a shred of condemnation on this album. I've never heard a more detailed or personal expression of faith than in these grooves. Siberry has declared she will "sink or swim" according to her beliefs. In my opinion, she appears to be walking on water.
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
~ Matthew 14:22–31 (New International Version)
The image at the top of this review is linked to Sheeba Music, where Jane Siberry (Issa) has made all of her music available for download at a price you are willing to pay, for a deed you are willing to perform, or as a gift from Jane. Click on top image of this review to visit the Sheeba Music.
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