Virginia Creeper
release date: Feb. 24, 2004
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
[4,12]
producer: Grant-Lee Phillips
label: Zoë Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights:
1. "Mona Lisa" (4 / 5) - 2.
"Waking Memory" -
3. "Lily-a-Passion" (4 / 5) - 4.
"Dirty Secret" -
5. "Always Friends" -
6. "Calamity Jane" -
7. "Josephine of the Swamps" - 8.
"Far End of the Night" -
9. "Susanna Little" (5 / 5) -
10. "Wish I Knew" - 11.
"Hickory Wind"
3rd solo album by Grant-Lee Phillips released 2½ years following
Mobilize (Aug. 2001) is Phillips back as sole producer on his own songs, which comes out as soft folk rock destilled in a slow and skilful way.
I really love his coolness and 'I don't mind'-attitude. Not only has he written all but one track on the album, he has also put himself in the production seat, and he sings lead vocals, plays the banjo, guitar, and piano. I think, he likes to do things his own way. He makes alternative singer / songwriter indie folk rock in his own narrating way with touches of americana. I also like how he explores different genres from time to time. You never know what kind of music he releases but somehow the albums are always a compound of interesting songs, which in a way is how mature artists often operate, although, not many musicians dare to be that honest and just follow their heart. Although,
Mobilize was a mighty fine album
Virginia Creeper is easily his so far best solo work proving he does more than well on his own.
Track highlights' are all eleven songs - this is naturally highly recommended.
[
allmusic.com,
The Guardian, PopMatters, Uncut 4 / 5, Mojo 4,5 / 5 stars ]
2004 Favourite releases: 1. Arcade Fire
Funeral - 2. The Streets
A Grand Don't Come for Free - 3. Grant-Lee Phillips
Virginia Creeper
~ ~ ~
"Mona Lisa"
"You're the last of your kind, Mona Lisa
With a wink of your eye,
Ya make it all right
Oh there's more left to life, Mona Lisa
Let me take you along for the ride
Aint nothin' that stays the same
Won't ask it a' you
Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday
Say ya won't ever lose
I been down, I been worse
Mona Lisa
Came in last, came in first
But it all gathers dirt, Mona Lisa
'Fore ya bathe in the light
Aint nothin' that stays the same
Won't ask it a' you
Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday
Say ya won't ever lose
Oh ya taught me this much, Mona Lisa
I done set it aside
For when you need the same magic touch
For for when you need remindin'
Aint nothin' that stays the same
Won't ask it a' you
Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday
Say ya won't ever lose
Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday
Say ya won't ever lose"
~ ~ ~
"Susanna Little"
"Sussana Little, Sussana Little
Gone 'fore I ever arrived
Questions that stream through my own Creek blood
The odyssey of your life
A motherless child, you were torn from your home
By decree of the county affairs
Good Christians, they gave you a lily-white dress
And they shorn back that Indian hair
Told ya 'study your Bible, be silent and still
And take to the ways of the whites'
Nothin' they offered could break down your will
For you ran for the gates one night
Sussana Little, Sussana Little
Gone 'fore I ever arrived
Questions that stream through my own Creek blood
Stories that keep you alive
Your daddy, Joe Little, had woes of his own
Drink was much stronger than greed
But some in the city felt native red hands
Were no place to let rest a deed
Oklahoma was rich with the stench of black oil
And the men who came there to drill
In the sun baked clay of Indian lands
There, in the desolate fields
Sussana Little, Sussana Little
Gone 'fore I ever arrived
Questions that stream through my own creek blood
Songs that'a keep you alive
Mysterious crimes, oh they swept through the county
Waving the finger of blame
Eyes turned to Joe Little
A couple too many of acres land to his name
No one would have heard the lone shot in the night
They never posted his bail
Big Joey Little, he never walked out
Of Sheriff Stanton's jail
Sussana Little, Sussana Little
Gone 'fore I ever arrived
Questions that stream through my own Creek blood
The odyssey of your life
For all of the lives you lived this far
No part of you could have known
The evil hearts of the men who would fetch ya
One night by the side of the road
The moon, it grew dark and the frost would form
Before ya finally were found
Chained to a log in a torn white dress
Shakin wild eyed on the ground
Sussana Little, Sussana Little
Gone 'fore I ever arrived
Questions that stream through my own creek blood
Such were the trials of your life...
Yet in the years to come, you took a man
Raised five of your own
And for a spell it was as almost as though
The light of justice had shown
The hand that had written this part but for you
And made it all plenty hard
Gave you a gusher, a well spring of oil
There in your own back yard
So pile them kids in the plush back seat
Ridin shotgun in the Packard to town
With your man, Tom Fisher, one hand on the wheel
The other on your knee now
Sussana Little, Sussana Little
Gone 'fore I ever arrived
Questions that stream through my own Creek blood
The odyssey of your life
:Sussana Little
:Sussana Little"
~ ~ ~
