While surfing around the other night I came upon a link to, "Help Mary Lou Lord Make Her New Record" on the website Kickstarter. If you've never heard about Kickstarter, it's a great fun concept that allows artists to post their projects (music, films, etc...) and appeal for donations and funding from "private backers" in exchange for incentives such as an advance copy of the product, signed and personalized mech (t-shirts, posters, CD's) and personal connecting experiences (Skype conversations, dinner, house concerts). Similar to Pledgemusic, it allows the fans to contribute in advance with some pretty cool rewards. Anyways, this MLL project caught my eye because I'm a fan of her music and I have some of her live concert recordings. She seems to be such a genuine music fan and she's an enjoyable performer. I feel bad I missed the deadline to donate, but the project successfully reached its funding goal and I look forward to the first new Mary Lou Lord full length album since 2004. The last I heard about MLL was that in 1995 she suffered a vocal cord affliction called spasmodic dysphonia. I assume as a vocalist this could be career ending, but I'm guessing she wants to make music again and hopefully tour. This could be good!
Though she only put out 3 full length albums, Mary Lou released a several EP's and singles on the Kill Rock Stars indie label. Possibly her finest moment was her self-titled 8-song (mini-LP) EP, which featured a cover of Daniel Johnston's Speeding Motorcycle. The first song is the only song that gets the full band treatment, as the rest of the songs are only Mary Lou and her guitar. Her simplistic sincere approach and the honesty and sweetness in her voice had me hooked first listen and in case you didn't know, Mary Lou started out honing her craft busking in and around Boston's subway stations. Some might think of her as a Juliana Hatfield wannabe, but her own style and identity is evident on all her recordings, it's just unfortunate she didn't quite reach the full potential of her talent with the vocal cord issue that stalled her. In some ways, her career has come full circle from her early indie records to a stab at a major label with Got No Shadow and now to a (future) self-funded record. I know she wants to impress with the new record and prove she still has the goods. Years ago, I burned a CD-R of this EP together with Got No Shadow, but there are some glitches in the sound. Alas, the other day I found an upgraded version online and after downloading it I thought this was something that is too good not to be further shared. If you don't have this already and even if you don't appreciate soft breathy vocalists, trust me, this is well worth the download! It's a wonderful record.
Enjoy!
MARY LOU LORD
Mary Lou Lord (1995)
01 Lights Are Changing
02 Helsinki
03 That Kind Of Girl
04 He'd Be A Diamond
05 The Bridge
06 I'm Talking To You
07 His Indie World
08 Speeding Motorcycle
Sorry link removed.
4 comments:
A thousand thanks - so glad you felt it was too good not to share. She's one of those musicians that I have not listened to fully, but really like the material I've heard. Can't wait to dive into her early music.
This record is a gem and deserves the attention, but I don't think it's appropriate to offer a download of it. Unlike unreleased live tracks or out of print records, this one is still in print and at least a few pennies would presumably end up in Mary Lou's pocket from a sale.
I really loved this album and "Martian Saints" EP. I first heard of MLL when she contributed her take on "Jump" on a Van Halen tribute album.
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