Track Listing

1. Are You Happy Now
2. Castaway
3. Courier
4. Sparrows Point
5. Kenworth Of My Dreams
6. On A Sea Of Fleur-De-Lis
7. Memory Of You
8. You Again
9. Nora
10. Howling At The Trouble
11. By Now

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67122 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
Though he would come to notoriety in the late '90s through Joan Baez and Dar Williams' cover versions of his songs, andhis participation in Cry, Cry, Cry, a trio including Williams and Lucy Kaplansky, Shindell seemed to come out of nowhere with 1992's SPARROW'S POINT. His rich baritone is reminiscent of John Gorka (with whom Shindell played in a college group), and his dark, poetic songs show the influence of Richard Thompson and Leonard Cohen.
Nevertheless, Shindell is a complete original, and this debut shows an artist already fully formed, thanks in part to an apprenticeship on the do-or-die New York singer-songwriter scene. Imagistic reveries like "On a Sea of Fleur-De-Lis" and ominous story-songs like"By Now" are indicative of a world-class songwriter with a unique vision.

Customer Reviews

An excellent album - his best as far as I'm concerned
A friend taped this album for me and I was hooked the first time I heard it. 'I Hope you're happy now' is a hymn to the end of a relationship and 'Kenworth of my dreams', about the relationship of a man with his truck makes me smile. A good place to start if you're new to Richard Shindell, and if you've heard his other stuff but not this one, please buy it and spread the word!

Music of the highest order
I bought this album on a whim as it looked promising. I was not expecting such a solid collection of songs.
To give you an idea of where i'm coming from musically my collection is mostly Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Rush, Tim Buckley. (you get the idea)
Richard Shindell sings and plays guitar on all of the songs. There is some backing vocals and session musicians also feature. If you like bare bones folk do not worry about the additional musicians. They are used sparingly and to wonderful effect. They never intrude upon the songs base structure.
Lyrically R.S goes from sadness to beauty to humour effortlessly. The best comparison I could make would be the style of Townes Van Zandt.
This is the type of album you will play again and again, it certainly hasn't been out of my CD player in a long time. At this time this is the only album i've heard of R.S, but going by the reviews from other Amazon users they sound excellent too. I'm looking forward to delving into a lot more gems from this talented artist.