Local musicians, don’t take offense. Kate Schrock
certainly meant none in
traveling all the way to Hamilton, Ontario, to find a backing
band to support
her piano and vocals for a brand-new album, which she’s
titled Indiana. She
didn’t even think she was going there to record an
album. It just sort of
worked out that way.
We should all be so blessed with pleasant surprises.
Schrock has been around the block a few times during her
decade (and five
albums) in the music biz as a fiercely independent performer.
Along the way,
she befriended producer Dave Rave DesRoches — whom
Schrock calls Canada’s
Joey Ramone — who is ensconced in Hamilton and surrounded
by that town’s
talented players (they’re called, affectionately, hammerheads).
Maybe you know Hamilton, actually. Producer/performer Daniel
Lanois (U2,
Brian Eno, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel) is from there. He’s
kind of famous. And
there are literally hundreds of active bands in the Steel
City. As Schrock
puts it, ÒHamilton has a really amazing music scene.
So, when DesRoches called up last year and asked Schrock
if she’d like to
come out and do some recording in an old Hamilton church,
it seemed like a
good idea.
He said, Why don’t you come out and we’ll just
use these guys, says Schrock.
DesRoches told her these guys had helped out on the last
Joe Mannix album. I
had to go to them.
It was as relaxed a project as I’ve ever been involved
with, she says.
Basically, I just showed up and Dave started calling his
buddies. We didn’t
realize we were making an entire record.
The bulk of the work was put in by Bill Becker on the guitar,
Keith Lindsay
on keys and accordion, Peter Ribhany on bass, and drummer
Ray Farrugia.
Again, you may know them. You’ll find Ribhany on a
number of old Motown
records. Farrugia’s Junkhouse is a pretty popular band
up north. Then there
were folks dropping in to provide a woodwinds section, backup
vocals, some
acoustic guitar, and all manner of instrumental help.
The band ended up producing one hell of an album — warm,
inviting, and easily
conveying the relaxed atmosphere of its creation. The songs
slide
effortlessly into one another, Schrock’s dreamy ether
of a voice dancing
above her own rolling piano and the nearly-always spot-on
instrumentation put
together by DesRoches and partner Glen Marshall.
Maybe the fact that Schrock slept in the back of the church
for the four days
in which they were recording has something to do with the
record’s palpable
immediacy.
Right from the album’s first track, Lives I Have Touched,
the interplay
between the languid guitar and Schrock’s pressing piano
grabs you right by
the gut. With the drums, they create a wonderful tension,
continually
threatening to break out into a barnburner, but, instead,
teasing further
with a chorus that moves ever more minor.
I listen to the AM radio and I stare at the walls, Schrock
sings, by way of
the song’s reluctance to excite, with her voice becoming
more urgent as it
climbs into the icy high notes in mimicry of her explanation
that I become
emotionally frozen.
I’m guessing the church was bereft of very much sensory
stimulation, as it
seems to have suited Schrock’s soul searching. You
won’t find much narrative
in her lyrics: The first and second person dominate, and
though the music
still seems mildly depressing in its construction, she seems,
rather, just
anxious that her current good luck will end.
In Need, her call of I don’t need much more than this,
sung in a manner to
make this song the disc’s most memorable, is echoed
by responses that imply
her happiness might be transitory. But the repetition is
enough to make you
actually believe that she’s content with the uncertainty.
Her gospel influences are showing through, not only in the
construction but
also in the resignation.
The Master, with its intriguing Rhodes intro, and some muted,
dirty guitar,
is similar: We thought we knew each other so well, Schrock
sings. But we
mistook the road to heaven/For the road that leads to hell.
Like the best of
gospel, she’s able to adeptly pair guttural, low-end
power with crisp,
high-end delicacy. Listen for the memorable delivery of the
phrase beautiful
boy, followed by the subtle little guitar lick. Then compare
it to the
falsetto she employs on Òit’s your life and
at the end with the repeated are
you too proud? Very cool stuff.
As is her mid-song piano break, one of the few true solos
on the disc,
twinkling like broken glass right along with the Rhodes break.
The contrast
of sounds threatens discordance and makes you split your
attention.
But the sounds here are varied. If Loving You is more than
a little bit ‘80s,
marking time like a quiet Duran Duran tune - and something
about her delivery
reminds of Simon LeBon, too. Of note here is the esoteric
backup vocals,
floating far below Schrock’s vocal track.
There’s a jam-band influence here, too. A Light on
the River, sounds like
Jerry’s guitar, circa Terrapin Station, really excellent,
and the drums
behind the piano are a rat-a-tat-tat march that keeps the
tune upbeat despite
the vocals. Later, the intro to Follow Through mimics a thoughtful,
late-set
Phish jam, or maybe a large orchestra warming up.
Of course, it’s hard not to make comparisons to Tori
Amos and Sarah McLachlan —
and the Elton John Tiny Dancer chord bite in Boy from the
North — but
that’s good company to be in. I’d say she’s
more like the latter of the two
piano-playing women, especially when Schrock turns to more
spare arrangements
like those on Bird on a Wing or Set Me In Motion or One Horse,
where her
voice is paired simply with the piano, maybe the organ, or
some light drums
breaking through. And I know McLachlan’s depth is her
stock in trade, but
I’d say Schrock’s the more honestly soulful.
This comes most to the fore on the album’s namesake,
Indiana, which also
closes things out. Like William S. Burroughs in a mid-bennie
rant, Schrock
cackles and murmurs in a total change of vocal pace — slightly
low in the
mix, matter-of-fact, clipped and quick in delivery, and more
nonsensical than
normal. It’s like we’ve been invited inside her
diary.
These soulful, downbeat arrangements are what Portland audiences
will be
treated to via live concert. Unfortunately, the band won’t
be making the trek
to Maine for Schrock’s CD-release party tonight, February
27, at the Asylum —
or maybe I should say fortunately, as Schrock says some people
like her
better when it’s just her and the piano. She’s
returning to the club that
saw her open for Sophie B. Hawkins earlier this year, when
they turned it
into a nice-vibing listening room.
Here’s hoping the locals turn out similarly to embrace
Indiana.
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at spfeifle@phx.com
Kate Schrock plays a CD-release show for Indiana, at the
Asylum, in Portland,
February 27. Call (207) 772-8274.
Issue Date: February 27 - March 6, 2003
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