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 HARRIET SCHOCK American Romance Future Schock FSD-19201-2
Best-known for writing Helen Reddy's 1975 smash Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady, Harriet Schock
defies easy categorization: composer, vocalist, musician, teacher, author. Such wide-ranging
experience allows Schock to explore lyrical and melodic subtleties on her latest CD,
American Romance (previously issued on cassette). According to the credits, Nik Venet
"produced and directed" American Romance, a tribute to the late producer's conceptualizing
the disc as a seamless union of eight individual ballads. Nowhere is this more evident than
on The Lady Suite, a fresh seven minute interpretation of Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady
and One Time Lover. Emphasizing the melody, arrangement, and singer -- pianist, Venet adds
understated strings and atmospheric background vocals, spotlighting the song and composer.
Songs like OK You Win, I Give Up and the title track would be hits, if today's radio formats
broke free of their narrow restrictions. Celebrating the cherished memories a parent imprints
on a child, Schock connects her personal longings to universal sentiments on Dancing With
My Father. In a rather different manner, Coyote empathizes with the plight of that animal
as development encroaches. More than echoing the singer-songwriter tradition, American Romance
renews popular music for the 21st century. |
