Rating:
Genre:
Folk
Release Date: 03/23/1992
Run Time: 40:46
Recorded live at
the Coffeehouse Extemporé in Minneapolis, MN, and initially released by the club's record label (with a reissue five years later on
Red House Records),
Bill Staines'
Bridges is a satisfying concert album that finds the veteran folksinger covering
folk favorites (
Woody Guthrie's
"Pretty Boy Floyd," the
traditional "I Bid You Goodnight"), repeating old favorites of his own that are beloved of his singalong listeners (
"A Place in the Choir," introduced as "my animal song for all you animals out there in the audience"),
yodeling (
"The Happy Yodel"), and introducing new material (
"Moving It Down the Line"). Throughout,
Staines, interweaving acoustic guitar lines with
Guy Van Duser, sings in his calm, reedy voice, lending a sense of reassurance to his tales of travel and travail. After leading the crowd through
"A Place in the Choir," he explains the inspiration for a line about a porcupine, telling a story about his encounter with such an animal on a camping trip (
"The Porcupine Talks to Itself"). Although this is his most sustained break from singing, it is of a piece with his songs, gentle, touching, and at times lightly amusing.
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Cart 0 items
Listen
