re: Sarah McLachlan

[chris@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Kansas City)]

>declann@uunet.uu.net wrote:
>
>Hi love-hounds, hope you all had a happy Christmas and New Year.
>
>Anyway, while I was at home for Christmas (in Dublin) I was pottering
>around a record store when I spotted the album "Touch" by Sarah McLachan.
>Having heard good things about her a number of months ago on gaffa, I
>decided to buy the album and was quite pleased with it. Its not a classic
>of our time or anything but I like it a lot especially the song "Vox".

   Here is some info on Sarah McLachlan from the sticker on my promotional copy
of her (first and only) album. Forgive the usual record company hyperbole.
This is taken from the ARISTA (American)  release of the album. 

********************************************************************************
 It's there in her delicately powerful voice. It's in the fingers that caress
the strings of her twelve-string classical guitar and carefully choose each
key on her piano. It's the rare TOUCH of Sarah McLachlan. Just 20 years old,
vocalist/songwriter/musician Sarah McLachlan comes from a different place,
geographically and musically speaking. Born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Sarah's sound marries her strong post-modern attitudes with her strong 
classical influence, the result of 12 years of classical guitar training and
another eight years studing classical piano. This uncommon background is as
uncommon as her music. Sarah's music is passionate and haunting - her songs
TOUCH on a variety of emotions and moods. As you will discover, it's a TOUCH
you've never felt before. 
********************************************************************************

I found the NETTWERK release of this album last January in NYC at VinalMania
in the Village. I was there for the New York Computer Graphics Show and was
doing the usual sweep of the record stores in Greenwich, asking if they had
any female artists I hadn't heard of yet. Sarah was one (The others were 
The Rainbirds and Mary Kelley.) On my way up to Boston for SIGGRAPH, I stopped
in Chicago for Ami-Expo and stayed with friends. We were looking for something
to do on a Sunday night, and found an ad for a free concert by Sarah at a bar
called Shuba's (I think). She performed her songs with a *very* tight band,
switching between piano and guitar. In contrast to her album covers, she was
dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. She covered all the songs on "Touch", several
new songs and a very nice cover of Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" (available
as the b-side of a promotional live 12" of "Steaming"). I talked to Sarah and
her manager after the concert. She's very animated, in the way Kate was in
early interviews, expressive eyes and hands. She seemed pleased with my comment
comparing, seeing her at this stage of her career, with what it must have been
like seeing Kate playing pubs with the KT Bush Band or seeing Jane Siberry in
Guelph. I have the Canadian and American releases of Touch. The American copy
has an additional track, "Touch", and the CD has an extended version of "Vox".
I haven't seen any yet, but I'm told that a number of club re-mixes exist on 
the west coast to the song "Steaming". She's currently in the studio according
to the folks I talked to at NETTWERK records. They had a family-like attitude
about Sarah, constantly refering to her as "our Sarah".

                                              Chris of,
                                                Chris'n'Vickie
                                                  of Kansas City