"She was a willowy beauty with charming shyness and a slightly tragic air." So says Brett Milano, of Juliana Hatfield in her starting-out days, in his recent book The Sound Of Our Town: A History Of Boston Rock+Roll.
Juliana Hatfield -- no less an intriguing, compelling character today -- has been working as a recording artist for twenty years. With the release of How To Walk Away, her 10th solo album, she again proves herself to be an uncompromising artist with impeccable pop instincts, a disdain for artifice, a completely original voice, and a contrarian streak.
How To Walk Away was recorded at Stratosphere Sound, the NYC studio co-owned by Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne), James Iha (formerly of Smashing Pumpkins), and Andy Chase (of revered alt-rock/pop band Ivy), who produced the album. How To Walk Away is evocative, layered, and unhurried, yet Chase has managed to retain Hatfield's essential rawness of spirit, smoothing out some rough edges but not all. And while she has frequently drawn from personal experience in the past, these songs are some of her most candid ever.
Just wanted you to know that "you are more like me than anyone I've ever met in my life". I am a lil bit younger but i've been following you since your first album (and have read your book), and I have all the Blake Babies records as well (everything you've been involved in). You have always been my #1 inspiration for music pretty much my whole life. Thank you. I think you are beautiful inside and out, and I KNOW I would NOT be the person I am today if it wasn't for you!!
You have no idea how you've influenced me. I will be forever grateful!
I love the pedal steele guitar and banjo in On Your Mind. It sends me back to 1971 when I first heard Harvest by Neal Young. The pedal steele played subtlely has a very powerful effect in a gentle way.
