"Edge of the World" Review
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Buddy Mondlock has been kicking around the contemporary acoustic music scene since Guy Clark first heard him sing at the 1986 Kerrville Folk Festival. Clark mentored him and collaborated with him on several songs over the years. Mondlock's songs have been covered by Nanci Griffith, Janis Ian, David Wilcox and Garth Brooks. But he has only a handful of recordings to his name.
The Edge of the World is Mondlock's fifth recording, and his first solo effort since completing Poetic Justice in 1998. In 2002 he collaborated with Art Garfunkel and Maia Sharp on a recording called Everything Waits to be Noticed on the EMI/Manhattan label.
The new CD opens with When I was a Little Kid, a nostalgic look back at childhood and its memories. Mondlock has a beautiful tenor voice which draws us back to an earlier place and time, before the large shopping malls took over the landscape, and "the world was full of mystery/god and space and time."
The title cut, The Edge of the World, skillfully paints a portrait of a relationship in crisis, where the lovers are not sure where they will land as they are "floating over goodbye and hello." Mondlock beautifully evokes a sense of uncertainty and indecision balanced by a degree of optimism. There is no bitterness here—just the looking ahead toward an unknown future.
The Skin is an unabashedly sensual celebration of touch. The melody is simply beautiful, and coupled with Mondlock's lovely tenor and skilled guitar playing, you just don't want it to end.
Mud, co-written with 2007 Grammy nominee Guy Clark, is a celebration of the natural world, and in some ways acts as a bookend to the album opener, When I was a Little Kid, as it brings you back to your childhood years.
Big Fish, Shallow Water is a fun, beautifully written tune by Mondlock about the Texas Gulf Coast's Refugio County.
There's a wonderful gem of a song here called Cowboys Born Out of Their Time, written by Tom Dundee. It's the only cut on the CD that Mondlock did not have a hand in writing. And I suspect that Mondlock may have recorded the song in tribute to Dundee, who died last year.
All I knew about Buddy Mondlock before I chose to listen to and review his new CD was that he had a reputation as a great songwriter whom others sought out to cover his songs. But now I know him as a wonderful singer and storyteller as well. I hope that he does not let another seven years roll by before recording his next CD. I think Mondlock is one of the greats on the contemporary music scene. And I hope that he has many more songs to write and stories to tell.
Track List:
When I was a Little Kid
The Edge of the World
The Skin
Mud (Guy Clark/Buddy Mondlock)
Fence in a Storm
How it Goes
The Birds
Nobody Knows Nothing (Jim Tullio/Buddy Mondlock)
Big Fish, Shallow Water
Understudies (Maia Sharp/Buddy Mondlock)
Hour By Hour (Steve Booker/Buddy Mondlock)
Baby Cries
Cowboys Born Out of Their Time (Tom Dundee)
I Count You My Friend
Edited by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)
Copyright 2007, Peterborough Folk Music Society and Roberta B. Schwartz.
This review may be reprinted with prior permission and attribution.
**FOR BUDDY TOUR DATES, Visit http://www.buddymondlock.com/tour.htm **
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Buddy Mondlock writes songs. He does it so well that some great songwriters
have recorded his songs on their own albums. Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith and Janis Ian, to name just a few. But theres nothing like hearing the guy who wrote em sing em. Hes not going to pin your ears back with those songs. Hes going to draw you into his world. Where a single snowflake follows the trajectory of a relationship, where you get your pocket picked by a Roman cat, where morning tumbles into noon and where dreams that dont come true still count. And it can all be happening in a little folk club or on a stage by a grassy hill or in someones living room or in the Royal Albert Hall.
You might be surprised where you find him. Recently he collaborated with the legendary Art Garfunkel and the wonderfully musical Maia Sharp. The three of them wrote and recorded an album together called Everything Waits To Be Noticed and then toured all over America and Europe.
People think hes from Texas but hes not. He just hangs out there a lot. He lives in Nashville now but he grew up in Park Forest Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He didnt have a troubled childhood. His parents were nice to him. They paid for guitar lessons when he was ten and they never said, when are you going to get a real job? He sang Crosby, Stills and Nash songs with his sisters and answered his little brothers questions from the top bunk. A few years away at college puzzling over Homer and Plato and then he was back. Living in the big city this time and playing open mics at Chicagos crucible for songwriters in those days, the famed Earl of Old town. He once opened for the amazing Steve Goodman there on New Years Eve. Buddy was 21. Says he could have walked out of there that night and gotten hit by a bus and he wouldnt have felt like life cheated him at all.
In 1998 he released his third album, Poetic Justice, and it got picked up by EMI Records in Canada and Ireland and by Proper Music in the UK when British DJ Bob Harris began playing songs from it on BBC radio. By this time Buddy was spending quite a bit of time with fellow Nashville songwriter Carol Elliott and they hit the road together.
Buddy now tours around the U.S. and absolutely loves to perform and entertain.
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Hi Buddy, We started our 19th season last night to a pretty packed house. We're really looking forward to your show on Oct.11 and hope that all your fans and friends from the San Antonio will join us for the evening. See you soon. Janet, Jayne and Steve
I know I spent a long time asking if you were coming to the UK, so now I have to ask...are you coming to Atlantic Canada?! I guess I shouldn't be greedy, but it was so great to see you in London. I'd love to see you again some time.
Thanks for the ad. I like your music and songs. I am also an old time Steve Goodman fan from way back. Guy Clark is also one of my long time favorites. Check me out here in Berlin. All the best, Leonard
Buddy we are looking forward to seeing you at the Mount Sequoyah Retreat Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas in October. Y'all come to Fayetteville to see Buddy, this is a great listening venue. And this is a month you want to be in Northwest Arkansas, the fall colors on the mountain can be great. Cool weather, a cool guy, playing cool music. Be cool with Buddy come to Fayetteville to catch his show. Ozark Skittle music lives.
