Track Listing

1. You Don't Love Me When I Cry
2. Captain For Dark Mornings
3. Tom Cat Goodbye
4. Mercy On Broadway
5. Save The Country
6. Gibsom Street
7. Time And Love
8. Man Who Sends Me Home
9. Sweet Lovin' Baby
10. Captain Saint Lucifer
11. New York Tendaberry
12. Save The Country
13. In The Country Way

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7006 in Music
• Released on: 2002-08-05
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Consider the curious fate of singer-songwriter Though Laura Nyro was one of the most successful American songwriters of the late '60s, penning hits like Streisand's "Stoney End," Blood, Sweat & Tears' "And When I Die," Three Dog Night's "Eli's Coming," and the Fifth Dimension's "Wedding Bell Blues," her buoyant, genre-blending major-label debut clicked with only a small, if influential, cult audience. But even Nyro's faithful must have been taken by surprise by its 1969 follow-up. A mature, deeply impressionistic ode to her hometown, New York City, Nyro's creation captures the city's multicultural soul and emotionally jagged edges so well it's hard to believe this 22-year-old daughter of a jazz musician who couldn't read a note of music concocted it. Stripping her music down to the bare essentials of her expressive, occasionally explosive soprano and fervent piano work somehow expanded its dramatic potential exponentially. Indeed, there are few pop albums whose protominimalist use of studio flourishes and production sheen have been as brief or effective; Nyro called them "colors," and that's exactly the function they serve here, adding crucial glimmer to the stark, jazzy drama of the singer's evocative songs. The bonus, "Save the Country," cut as a full studio production prior to Nyro rethinking the approach, fairly blares by comparison. Rooted in the singer's beloved '50s R&B and pop, yet infused with her brave, singular vision and the chutzpah to stick to it, this album remains Nyro's masterpiece. --Jerry McCulley

CD Description
Laura Nyro, who died in 1997, found fame when her compositions were covered by other artists, including Blood, Sweat and Tears, Barbra Streisand, and the Fifth Dimension. Drawing inspiration from Broadway's Tin Pan Alley, R&B, and Brill Building acolytes Carole King and Ellie Greenwich, she wrote material echoing these elements without ever sounding derivative. NEW YORK TENDABERRY shows her skills to full effect, combining brassy, up-tempo pop with plaintive, introspective musings. Nyro's emotional voice swoops and dives at will, emphasising the intensity of her songwriting. Uncompromising and challenging, this album showcases the art of a painfully underrated performer.

Customer Reviews

Laura and Her Piano: A Groundbreaking Recording
Laura Nyro orginally made her reputation by writing songs that mixed urban doo-wop with folk flavors--songs like "Stoney End," "And When I Die," "Wedding Bell Blues," and "Stone Soul Picnic," songs that hit big when recorded by other artists. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Nyro recorded three ground-breaking albums (ELI & THE 13TH CONFESSION, NEW YORK TENDABERRY, and CHRISTMAS & THE BEADS OF SWEAT), and although many consider that her creativity peaked with those releases she continued to record and remained powerfully influential until her death in 1997. But for all of this, and unlike such Brill Building contemporaries as Carole King, Laura Nyro herself never made the leap from star writer to star performer. There are several reasons for this. Nyro had a passionate voice of considerable range, but it was not a "star" voice--that is to say, her voice lacked that idiosycratic sparkle that one expects to find in a great singer. But more to the point, after her first wave of song-writing hits, Nyro unexpectedly evolved into an incredibly uncompromising artist who seldom bothered to consider audience response to her material. Only one recording in her long career would achieve anything like a commercial success, and that recording is the 1969 NEW YORK TENDABERRY, which peaked at number 32.

It is odd that NEW YORK TENDABERRY ever made it into the pop charts to begin with--even by today's standards it is alternative with a capitol "A," a strange mix of jazz, blues, rock, pop, urban edges, and folk flourishes created largely by Laura and her piano with little in the way of musical back-up and still less in the way of vocal back-up. But the most disconcerting thing about NEW YORK TENDABERRY is its dynamics: the individual selections shift from quiet to loud with startling effect, and no sooner does one become used to a tempo than it changes in an unexpected direction. The result is often as frustrating as it is fascinating. The opening "You Don't Love Me When I Cry" begins so softly that you'll reach for the volume control--but no sooner do you make the adjustment than Nyro bursts out full force and you'll have adjust the volume down. The first three selections are perhaps the weakest on the album, more interesting for the way in which Nyro performs them than for their actual content, but once the album reaches "Mercy on Broadway" it strikes and maintains a powerful but delicate balance. The best known selection from NEW YORK TENDABERRY is "Save the Country," a selection that mixes politics, protest, and spirituality to exceptional effect; "Time and Love" is equally fine.

Nyro's work, particularly at this extreme, inevitably provokes a love it or hate it reaction--but say what you like, her influence is undeniable. It is impossible to imagine such diverse artists as Rickie Lee Jones, Kate Bush, and Suzanne Vega (who actually acknowledges the debt in an album note) without reference to Nyro in general and NEW YORK TENDABERRY in particular. Recommended, but don't say you weren't warned: Nyro is an acquired taste, and unless you're prepared to give this work the repeated listenings it deserves you'd best go somewhere else.

Reaching For The Sublime ( nevertoolate #002 )
My first experience of Laura Nyro's Voice came in 1970
with the inclusion of the song 'Gibsom Street' on the
Atlantic double-album sampler 'Fill You Head With Rock'.

She was in illustrious company : Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen,
Santana, Blood Sweat and Tears ( Oh but they were heady days ! ).

That one small taste and I was captivated. I remain so.

In 'New York Tendaberry' you will find a rare jewel. A collection
of 13 extraordinary compositions. Tinged with gospel; flavoured with soul;
burning with seismic, visionary passion.

Ms Nyro's voice is a sublimely acrobatic instrument performing pirouettes
and cartwheels with unbelievable technical virtuosity. An artist not
afraid of taking risks ( listen to 'Tom Cat Goodbye' and try to sing along ! ).

Golly, as I'm writing 'Gibsom Street' has just started playing and I am
transported back almost 40 years to that first magical moment.

(Gulp!)

A rare and wonderful performer. A ravishingly beautiful album.

Trust me .... It's a taste worth aquiring.

A truely fantastic album
This album is superb. Way ahead of it's time. It is one of those albums that when you first hear it you think "not too sure". However, once you get used to it it takes on another level. It is so original and in it's day a pioneering album. Laura Nyro has such a unique sound that is imitated and echoed in today's contemporary music. This is one of my favourite albums and I feel very passionately about it if you can't guess!
I'd say to any one tempted to buy it, go ahead but give it time to settle on you. Once it has you will understand why I am so crazy about this album and this under rated singer/songwriter.