a rotating cast of classy characters that includes/ has included:
MARK SPENCER, ANDY COTTON, DOUG WYGAL, KRISTIN MUELLER, DENNIS CRONIN, STEVE LEWIS, RICHARD MORRIS, JOHN LECESSEE, CHRISTIAN GIBBS, MIKE COHEN, LEX PRICE, NICK BUDA, JONATHAN TREBING, DAVE JAQUES, CHARLIE CHADWICK . . .
Influences
in no particular order:
jolie holland, cat power, lucinda williams, elliott smith, karen dalton, iron and wine, stephin merritt, calexico, the cure, gillian welch, feist, sam phillips, emmylou harris, air, kathleen edwards, aimee mann, madeleine peyroux, amy correia, jeff buckley, joy zipper, hank williams, johnny cash, laura veirs, cortney tidwell, nouvelle vague
Sounds Like
. . . [Thieves] begins with electrified turbulence, passes through wide-awake freedom, and emerges on the edge of an unmarked town stripped of nearly everything but her voice and her emotions. While the trend in singer-songwriters of the indie-rock persuasion is toward naivete and pre-teen vocalizing, Burson sings like a grown soul, aware of the repercussions of her choices . . .
- Roy Kasten, No Depression, Nov./ Dec. 2007
. . Hers is a knowing voice, world-weary like Lucinda Williams’, expressive like Kathleen Edwards’, mysterious like Jolie Holland’s [and] THIEVES is the sound of a magnificent lily caught in mid-flowering, its rich scent already piercing the air.
- Fred Mills, Harp Magazine, Sept./ Oct. 2007
On her sophomore LP, this Tennessee native hungers for a lost love within musical laments built on Americana roots and indie-rock lilts. Tender sentiments give way to embittered warbles with tracks like the wronged-gal anthem, “These Boots Are Made For Walkin,’” which Burson undresses to a soulful cry and a lone twangy banjo. Intimate and brooding, THIEVES is the confessions, obsessions, and mixed emotions of the broken-hearted.
- Helen Matatov, CMJ New Music Monthly, Sept. 2007
Erstwhile Nashvillian Clare Burson has been making records of understated beauty ever since she released her evocative debut, The In-Between, in 2003. Now living in Brooklyn, she recorded her new Thieves with Nashville producer Fognode, a sculptor of ambient musical textures who imbues Burson's plainspoken originals with a creaky splendor that evokes the blues of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta but doesn't really sound like either. Hooked by dissonant flecks of banjo, the disc's cover of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" is likely to get folks talking, but hopefully it won't overshadow Burson's own haunting studies in brown. Sung in her by turns gauzy and clarion alto, several of her songs would sound right at home alongside the more down-tempo numbers on Leslie Feist's gorgeous new album.
- Bill Friskics-Warren, The Tennessean, 7/13/07
“Hers is a knowing voice, world-weary like Lucinda Williams’, expressive like Kathleen Edwards’ [and] mysterious like Jolie Holland’s.”
- Fred Mills for Harp Magazine
Of her musical objectives, indie songstress Clare Burson explains, “I’ve always leaned towards poetic simplicity and subtlety in my music—wanting to express as much as I can with the fewest possible words and musical flourishes.” This desire for melodic minimalism is evident in her critically acclaimed releases, THE IN-BETWEEN, IDAHO, and THIEVES, each of which is marked by evocative imagery, subtle metaphor, and effortless harmonies.
Burson builds upon this aesthetic with SILVER AND ASH, her most ambitious project yet. Set for an early 2010 release, SILVER AND ASH is an album, performance piece, and songbook that imagines her grandmother's life in Germany, from her birth in 1919 to her escape in 1938. For this project, Burson visited her own childhood home in Memphis, where she conducted interviews with her grandmothers, and ventured to the childhood homes of her ancestors in Germany, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, and the Ukraine.
The result of Burson’s travel, research, and ancestral archeology is a stunning album of 10 original songs that inhabit and give life to her grandmother’s story as well as Clare’s own struggles with rupture, silence, guilt, empathy, and continuity. The album was produced by Grammy nominated Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Laura Veirs, Bill Frisell), and with the help of her band, Mark Spencer on guitar (Son Volt, Laura Cantrell, Aimee Mann), Tony Leone on drums (Ollabelle, Levon Helm), and Andy Cotton on bass, Burson's lush string arrangements and rich vocals - at times wistful, at times full of desperation, but at all times direct - come together to fill the 10 songs on SILVER AND ASH with nostalgia and longing.
A classically trained violinist, and later, conversant in Bluegrass, Celtic and Klezmer fiddle tunes, Burson began playing guitar while studying history at Brown University. After college and a year in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, Burson spent two years in Boston before returning to Tennessee. Currently, Clare lives in Brooklyn, NY.
thx for the add clare. sweet sound 'snow and 1000' really good! orig. sound 4 sure! i'll def. b back around to hear more. all the best to you and yours. glenn
Just to let you know that you’re on the current show. If you get a chance check it out - syndicated around the clock, around the world. On air 35 hours a week in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK.
Details of music played from www.AmericanaOK.com.
Tom Fahey Productions – Now that's Americana Radio
The new song cycle sounds wonderful. Hopefully will get to hear you in Boston or Brooklyn soon.
Jolie Holland and Samantha Parton are now living in Brooklyn...do you ever do shows with them? Seems like it would be a perfect match...maybe we would even drive up from Boston to see that.
All the best & thanks again for the incredible songs,
That was a great show by you and Kathleen Edwards at the Square Room last Fri. Probably the best show in Knoxville for 2009. Thanks for the pic and autograph.
Here's direct links to some pics. There's more pics in my profile MyPics and Photobucket, folder Square_Room_2009.
Clare, good to hear from you. Your music sounds great! Besides Walt Salas-Humara and his band "The Silos" (www.myspace.com/thesilos) you are my favorite musician based in New York! Cheers from Frankfurt Werner
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