Search - Claudia Schmidt :: Big Earful

A Pleasant Escape

dev1 | Baltimore | 06/17/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Claudia Schmidt is a folkie with a lively voice and a taste fortraditional American popular music. On Big Earful, she temporally setsher folk roots aside and takes us back about 75 years to the world of early 20th century Negro music. Big Earful is a reverent collection of gospel (Bend In The Rover), blues (Pretty At The End), swing (Rock That Sucker) and torch. If you ducked inside a smoke filled Chicago jazz club circa 1925, you could expect to hear `You Can Call Me Baby' and `Danger Zone.'The disc has an underproduced small club feel: intimate and comfortable. The straight folk stuff is Claudia Schmidt's signature. `Herds Of Words,' `Novembering,' and `Roads' feature solo vocals backed by her pianolin, marxolin and humonium. These seldom heard piano string instruments add an eerie other-world quality. Big Earful is a pleasant escape from today back in time or to some mysterious place. END"

Not for specialists

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 04/22/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There are very few performers I can think of who are as eclectic as Claudia in their choice of styles, songs, settings. But her albums hang together for two primary reasons: the strength of her powerful yet pleasant pipes and the total commitment she gives to her material. I never get the sense that she's "using" a song to display her own considerable vocal and instrumental talents. The focus is on the song itself and making it a shared experience with the listener. I recently came back to this recording after hearing Bill Evans' instrumental version of "You Must Believe in Spring." To hear Claudia, accompanied by jazz piano trio, bring the poetic lyrics of Michelle Legrand's haunting melody to life is like experiencing the transforming glory of the season itself."