Track Listings (11) - Disc #1| All Artists: Meg Hutchinson Title: The Living Side Members Wishing: 3 Total Copies: 0 Label: Red House Records Original Release Date: 1/1/2010 Re-Release Date: 2/9/2010 Genres: Country, Folk, Pop Styles: Bluegrass, Traditional Folk Number of Discs: 1 SwapaCD Credits: 1 UPC: 033651022428 |
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Search - Meg Hutchinson :: The Living Side
 | Meg Hutchinson The Living Side Genres: Country, Folk, Pop
Following the success of her critically acclaimed Red House Records debut Come Up Full, award-winning songwriter Meg Hutchinson returns with The Living Side. The album paints a vivid picture of the way America lives today... more » |
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Album Description Following the success of her critically acclaimed Red House Records debut Come Up Full, award-winning songwriter Meg Hutchinson returns with The Living Side. The album paints a vivid picture of the way America lives today, relentlessly moving and unsure of its destination. Reaching a new level of brilliance with her song craft, the eleven songs on the record are a moody mix of acoustic folk gems that explore this time of challenge and change. Atmospheric keyboards lay behind Meg's lush vocals giving a subtle power to her refined melodies. From the reflective mood of "Being Happy," the haunting harmonies of "Hopeful Things," and the carefree sway of the album's closer "Something Else" The Living Side is a contemplative record that plays out like a quiet conversation, leaving room for questions and space for the listener to answer. Once again teaming up with producer Crit Harmon, Meg's vocals are front and center, augmented by a moody wurlitzer and tasteful guitars that give pause for her intimate lyrics to resonate. The Living Side is a deeply layered collection of songs with a caliber of musicianship that proves she is one of the most important voices of folk music's next generation. Each tune is written, recorded and arranged with the kind of meticulous artistic eye you'd expect from great artists, but their themes reside on a side of life that listeners from the apple orchard to trailer parks and the Statue of Liberty to factory town can relate. The Living Side is a hypnotic musical journey that takes on new emotional meaning with every listen and encourages us to choose the living side. Similarly Requested CDs
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CD ReviewsNew serenity cathy earnshaw | Berlin, Germany | 02/22/2010 (5 out of 5 stars) "On her sixth studio album, Meg's songwriting is lyrically superb as always. And she's sounding very serene these days - there's no mistaking the calming effect of love in her new songs and that after some private psychological war, her feet have come down firmly on the side of the living. She wants to inspire those tiptoeing along the Golden Gate Bridge with eyes skyward to do the same (Gatekeeper). Not to drown out the chirps of sadness of birds perched on your tree, but to listen to their song. Not to turn away from darkness, but to become a night traveller using inner flashlights to illuminate the way (Full of Light). She's skillful at threading the social and political into her personal world: the "strange and lovely vision" of passengers huddled on the rescue chutes of the plane which landed in the Hudson (Hopeful Things), the "year of the billion dollar bailout" and driving "past our Lady of Liberty" on Hard to Change. Knitted into this urban scenery is naturalistic imagery of lakes, apple fields, "a flock of white birds tossed into the sky" (a beautiful line!), and the mythic flight of Icarus towards the sun. What detracted from this atmosphere of poetic and emotional depth and the warmth of her voice sometimes - for me - was the sound, which veered dangerously close to being too "soft", even a bit sentimental: especially the electric guitar on Yea Tho We Walk and the keyboards on See Me Now and Hard to Change (which left me wondering how much better they might sound without them or with piano accompaniment). I thought that the production sound on her last album Come Up Full, where the use of these "easy listening" keyboards wasn't so prominent, fitted her songwriting perfectly. But it's still a huge pleasure to wander through her visions and see the world through her eyes for eleven songs. How many other singer-songwriters reflect on the tyranny of machines in our modern lives - "I can barely hear you over these machines / Turn 'em all off and tell me about your dreams"? Or express our oppressive dependence on technology: "I bought all these tools to save time / Well, if they save so much, then where's all mine"? This is the sound of a soul wise beyond her years: "They say perfect the life or perfect the art A choice like that will only tear you apart There's room for both of you in my heart." -- Being Happy (4.5 stars) Standouts (IMO): Hard to change, Hopeful things, Travel in, Full of light" The Living Side Robert W. Woodall | 06/21/2010 (5 out of 5 stars) "Another great record from Meg Hutchinson! While I find it slightly more subtle than her two most recent CDs, that just means there's more to find on repeated listening. She's at the top of my list of most deserving artists you probably haven't heard of and need to hear. I love her voice and her harmonies but her poetry is what I live for."
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