|
IT
APPEARS
THAT
lesbian
folk
singer
Melissa
Ferrick
made
her
new
CD,
“The
Other
Side,”
for
herself,
and
nobody
else.
To
Ferrick,
who
is
scheduled
to
perform
on
Sunday
at
the
Capital
Pride
festival
main
stage,
this
marks
somewhat
of
a
departure
in
her
more
than
14
years
of
recording.
It
seems
to
signify
a
return
to
the
days
of
her
adolescent
songwriting,
alone
on
the
third
floor
of
her
childhood
home
in
Newburyport,
Mass.
At
nearly
34,
Ferrick
even
ventured
back
to
her
teen-angst
roots
by
recording
her
ninth
studio
album
over
three
weeks,
during
a
stormy
holiday
season
in
Newburyport,
while
she
moved
out
of
an
apartment
she
didn’t
like
and
as
her
personal
life
was
falling
apart.
“I
definitely
find
that
I
wrote
more
frequently
during
times
of
turmoil
or
in
between
surrenders,”
says
the
singer,
who
recently
ended
a
personal
relationship
with
her
tour
manager,
Jen
Perry.
Ultimately,
“The
Other
Side,”
released
June
1,
is
just
another
set
of
songs
about
the
singer’s
personal
life,
and
because
this
subject
is
a
theme
in
the
bulk
of
Ferrick’s
work,
most
of
the
songs
on
the
new
CD
sound
like
they
did
when
the
very
melancholy
Morrissey
discovered
the
equally
emotive
singer
in
1991.
Ferrick’s
latest
effort
bears
the
most
resemblance
to
“Freedom,”
an
explicitly
autobiographical
album
that
featured
11
songs
tracing
her
life
during
the
end
of
another
long-term
relationship.
In
typical
Ferrick
form,
on
“The
Other
Side,”
she
again
recreates
her
personal
life
through
song
lyrics,
and
what
emerges
is
a
session
of
Gestalt
therapy
set
to
raging
guitar
—
some
of
it
lyrical,
a
lot
of
it
rambling.
THE
ALBUM
OPENS
with
“Beijing,”
the
only
song
that
the
singer
says
was
not
derived
from
any
“tumultuous
relationship
or
experience.”
Featuring
her
trademark
staccato
guitar,
Ferrick
wrote
“Beijing,”
an
invective
against
corporate
America,
with
the
childhood
imagery
of
digging
a
hole
to
China
to
escape
AOL/Time
Warner
mergers
and
Martha
Stewart-ish
greed.
The
title
song,
“The
Other
Side,”
follows
and
also
highlights
Ferrick’s
strong
need
to
get
to
another
place.
It
was
written
during
a
sound
check
in
Houston,
while
she
says
she
was
feeling
discouraged
about
having
to
play
in
“one
more
loud,
dirty
atmosphere.”
Upbeat
and
rhythmical,
“Beijing”
and
“The
Other
Side”
demonstrate
Ferrick’s
prowess
as
an
extremely
talented
guitar
player.
The
CD
sinks
from
there,
and
is
only
briefly
buoyed
by
“Fearless,”
a
song
Ferrick
says
is
about
her
frustration
with
being
on
the
road
and
feeling
inadequate
in
her
ability
to
be
someone’s
partner.
At
times,
the
singer’s
lyrics
are
excruciatingly
painful
to
listen
to,
as
with
“Nebraska,”
in
which
she
says
her
heart
“looks
like
a
disaster,
like
the
blown
out
semi-tires
on
the
highway
of
Nebraska.”
Ferrick’s
latest
contribution
most
closely
resembles
her
previous
work
on
albums
such
as
“Valentine
Heartache,”
“Everything
I
Need,”
and
other
CDs
she
has
released
since
the
very
beginning.
Ferrick
says
she
has
grown
up
on
her
latest
CD,
and
has
future
plans
on
her
own
label,
Right
on
Records,
to
begin
working
on
other
multimedia
projects.
The
first
will
be
a
DVD
that
documents
her
first
10
years
on
the
road.
But
a
sign
of
true
maturity,
in
life
and
music,
is
a
willingness
to
be
a
little
less
self-absorbed,
not
more.
She
could
learn
a
thing
or
two
from
guitarists
such
as
Dave
Matthews,
who
is
working
more
with
fellow
musicians
and,
in
the
process,
receiving
critical
acclaim.
Perhaps
with
“The
Other
Side”
Ferrick
has
finally
worked
out
her
inner
turmoil,
so
with
her
next
musical
contribution
she
can
finally
escape
her
own
box.
 |
 |
| The
following comments were posted by our readers and were
not edited by floridablade.com. We ask that you
treat others with respect; any post deemed offensive will
be removed. |
|
| 
