Mary Lou Lord's Got "Live"
New covers album recorded at subway stops
After recording her last album for a major label in a squeaky clean studio,
Mary Lou Lord opted to burrow back underground -- quite literally -- for the
recording of her live covers album, Live City Sounds.
"It's an atmosphere that I'm very comfortable with," says Lord of recording
at a pair of subway stops. "I don't feel any pressure. When you're in the
studio, you're always looking at the clock, and on a stage I've never felt
completely comfortable. I figured people have been so supportive and
generous, why not give them exactly what they'd heard. It's why they liked me
in the first place."
Beginning with the rattle and rush of one of Boston's T-line cars whisking
through a tunnel, Live City Sounds boasts Lord's versions of songs by the
likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg, Magnetic Fields, Big Star
and the Pogues.
Lord's choice of songwriters to cover stems in part from the transitory
nature of busking, with performers afforded the narrowest of windows to make
an impression. "When you play in a subway, often you only get two minutes to
influence someone," she says. "Each line has to be as good as the one before
it, so it doesn't matter where you come in. Even if you come in halfway
through, it will touch you."
Critical favorite Richard Thompson made the cut twice, with Lord updating
both "Beeswing" and "1952 Vincent Black Lightning." "It conjures up feelings
of passion and youth that make for a very good song," she says of the latter.
"Coming from a woman's perspective who doesn't play guitar that well, the
more romantic side of the song comes out, not just the rebelliousness of the
biker."
In nearly a decade of busking, Lord says her debut in London remains her
roughest outing. "I had a wicker basket for tips, and tips mostly come in
coin form -- nobody's going to give you a five-pound note. This dude came up
and he was sniffing a can of something. He had one arm missing and he had a
dog with him that had three legs. He sat down next to me, and I didn't have
the guts to tell him to wank off. But I started to make a bunch of money and
just as I was about ready to leave, the guy stood up and pissed all over the
money. I just kind of shuffled off quickly. Now I know how to spot it before
it happens."
COLIN DEVENISH
(March 1, 2002)
--
gender is just an excuse, relationship shouldn't just be an excuse,
love is often an excuse, although sometimes these excuses are all
we have to hold onto,
death is the reason and living is the celebration
- Beth Orton
--
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