Search - Sid Selvidge :: A Little Bit of Rain

Sid Selvidge
A Little Bit of Rain
Genres: Country, Blues, Folk, Pop

Track Listings (12) - Disc #1
1. Little Bit of Rain
2. Hobo Bill
3. Mama You Don't Mean Me No Good
4. Long Tall Mama
5. Do I Ever Cross Your Mind
6. Every Natural Thing
7. The River
8. Real Thing (Full Time Lover)
9. Swannanoa Tunnel
10. Long Black Veil
11. Pickin' Petals
12. Arkansas Girl

The Commercial Appeal - March 29, 2003 FOUR STARS Not too many people can produce a record a decade and get away with it. Memphis singer-songwriter and folk-blues authority Sid Selvidge can. While his is not a prolific cat... more »alog, each of Selvidge's five studio albums has been worth the wait, especially his latest, "A Little Bit of Rain." His last record, 1993's "Twice Told Tales," was part of the Nonesuch American Explorer Series (which also put out an eponymous 1991 album by Charlie Feathers). Whereas on the last one you got such Selvidge signature covers as Pearlee and Keep It Clean (not to mention his wonderful rendition of Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt), this go-round features such cool interpolations as the soulful Bluff City stamp given to Big Bill Broonzy's Long Tall Mama and the Jimmie Rodgers chestnut Hobo Bill, which finds Selvidge in fine yodeling form. Only Selvidge's Mud Boy & the Neutrons compeer Jim Dick inson could have produced this one, and the musical kinship is so apparent and strikingly simpatico, this album no doubt will be viewed as Selvidge's best to date. Arrangements are their own thing of beauty as well. An extended family of session players includes Selvidge's guitar monster of a son Steve Selvidge, that other guitar monster Luther Dickinson, Paul Taylor on drums, bassist Sam Shoup, Jim Spake and Scott Thompson on horns, Neutrons member Jimmy Crosthwait rubbing the washboard, singers Brenda Patterson, Susan Marshall and Reba Russell, and Jim Dickinson holding down an arsenal of keyboards. Songs come alive as a result, notably Eddie Hinton's Every Natural Thing and the twin balladic highlights, Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? and John Hiatt's The River. Selvidge goes it alone on several tunes, including the stark Bascom Lunsford number Swannanoa Tunnel (also done in recent years by Martin Simpson) and a sweetly dark take on Long Black Veil. Selvidge has never sung better. His vulnerable tenor voice - which breaks into falsetto at the most pained, exposed moments - sings with an unadorned dignity throughout. And he rolls the credits, as the liner notes suggest, with an original waltz, Arkansas Girl, a 9/11-inspired song that finds hope where it begins - at home. - Bill Ellis

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CD Details

All Artists: Sid Selvidge
Title: A Little Bit of Rain
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Archer Records
Release Date: 4/1/2003
Genres: Country, Blues, Folk, Pop
Styles: Americana, Outlaw Country, Classic Country, Traditional Blues, Traditional Folk
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 822533192027

Synopsis

Album Description

The Commercial Appeal - March 29, 2003 FOUR STARS Not too many people can produce a record a decade and get away with it. Memphis singer-songwriter and folk-blues authority Sid Selvidge can. While his is not a prolific catalog, each of Selvidge's five studio albums has been worth the wait, especially his latest, "A Little Bit of Rain." His last record, 1993's "Twice Told Tales," was part of the Nonesuch American Explorer Series (which also put out an eponymous 1991 album by Charlie Feathers). Whereas on the last one you got such Selvidge signature covers as Pearlee and Keep It Clean (not to mention his wonderful rendition of Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt), this go-round features such cool interpolations as the soulful Bluff City stamp given to Big Bill Broonzy's Long Tall Mama and the Jimmie Rodgers chestnut Hobo Bill, which finds Selvidge in fine yodeling form. Only Selvidge's Mud Boy & the Neutrons compeer Jim Dick inson could have produced this one, and the musical kinship is so apparent and strikingly simpatico, this album no doubt will be viewed as Selvidge's best to date. Arrangements are their own thing of beauty as well. An extended family of session players includes Selvidge's guitar monster of a son Steve Selvidge, that other guitar monster Luther Dickinson, Paul Taylor on drums, bassist Sam Shoup, Jim Spake and Scott Thompson on horns, Neutrons member Jimmy Crosthwait rubbing the washboard, singers Brenda Patterson, Susan Marshall and Reba Russell, and Jim Dickinson holding down an arsenal of keyboards. Songs come alive as a result, notably Eddie Hinton's Every Natural Thing and the twin balladic highlights, Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? and John Hiatt's The River. Selvidge goes it alone on several tunes, including the stark Bascom Lunsford number Swannanoa Tunnel (also done in recent years by Martin Simpson) and a sweetly dark take on Long Black Veil. Selvidge has never sung better. His vulnerable tenor voice - which breaks into falsetto at the most pained, exposed moments - sings with an unadorned dignity throughout. And he rolls the credits, as the liner notes suggest, with an original waltz, Arkansas Girl, a 9/11-inspired song that finds hope where it begins - at home. - Bill Ellis

CD Reviews

Musical art of the highest order

Jerome Clark | Canby, Minnesota | 06/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a gorgeous record. I first heard of Sid Selvidge some years ago, in passing but always flattering mentions in a book by the late Robert Palmer. Until a few days ago, however, I'd never actually heard him. Selvidge, I learn, is one of those hidden treasures, a guy whose gift is sure and true but too smart to force its attention on you. When you hear him, you need to -- and you will want to -- sit down and afford him the courtesy of deep listening. A creature of the folk and blues revival, he also has an ear for rootsy r&b and a feeling for the subtleties of older, purer country. Whatever he's doing, it is distinctly his own, melded into a seamless musical vision. He goes inside a song and burrows to its core. It can't be easy, but Selvidge is too good to make it sound like work.His version of "Hobo Bill" carries only occasional, incidental references to the immortal Jimmie Rodgers original. Bascom Lamar Lunsford's recording of the traditional "Swannanoa Tunnel" is a classic, but Selvidge's reimagining is sheer cold, lonesome wind. Only Fred Neil could have topped this, though the CD's title tune, a Neil composition (from his first solo album, the influential 1965 Elektra release), amply demonstrates that Selvidge can hold his own against the folk masters. He manages to transform the grossly over-covered "Long Black Veil" into something you can listen to with pleasure. The r&b ballad "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?" will make you cry. The great James Luther Dickinson produces. I need say no more, except that if you're looking for musical art of the highest order, you'll want this record to be a part of your life."

Do I Ever Cross Your Mind - Fantastic!

M. A HERBST | Mt. Vernon, Wa USA | 01/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You have to have a heart of stone to not get misty listening to Do I Ever Cross Your Mind and not think of a lost love. Only Ray Charles' version comes close."