14th Street

[johnfoyle]

http://www.twolouiesmagazine.com/issues/2005/v26_no3/v26no3_rosebud.html

( extract)

The next day Iris and I had lunch with Portlander’s Jerilyn Tabor, Sara Neary and Emily Spray. We met at Schiller’s Liquor Bar restaurant in the Lower East Side. It was a table of gorgeous women who seem to be doing well. Emily, who’s a great talent in many areas, started her career in Blue Grass bands in Portland, Oregon years ago. I saw her during the Storefront days in the Vaudeville shows. She’s a songwriter as well, and one of her songs is the first song and the first single on Laura Cantrell’s new record, Humming by the Flowering Vine. The song is entitled “14th Street.” Emily said the song was inspired by her friend Richard Hell of Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

[johnfoyle]

feed title: PopText
title *: Laura Cantrell - 14th Street
url *: http://poptext.blogspot.com/2005/05/laura-cantrell-14th-street.html
author: Abby
date: 2005-05-19T12:12:34Z
content:
“I see you on the street/ You kiss my cheek/ My knees goes weak/ It’s clear you’ve got nothing to loose/ While I’m loosing sleep.”

It’s easy to get jaded in this game.*

I turn the page and there’s yet another Ritalin-snorting, tanorexic ingénue staring blankly back (as the man behind the camera/production booth/label puts words in her mouth and an angle in her come-hither hip). Obviously, I adore them; Lindsey, Ashlee, Hillary – the darling girls are the Ketel-fuelled car-crash of my generation, and I’m more than happy to peruse Defamer et al for the latest shuddering stats and occasional burst of pop brilliance to justify my devotion.

But go looking for innocence? It’s another story. Even their faux-naïve adolescent musings are feedback group-ed to a synthetic aftertaste, strategic angst reading like the twenty-something nostalgia that reveals a song-writer’s hand and self-conscious heart.

Which is why this version of Emily Spray's song moves me so much, with its simple refrain and quiet emotion. The melody charms and soothes, skipping lightly on eager toes in dew-damp grass. Because innocence isn’t a child-like body or barely-legal pout, it’s hope. Hope that these tangential connections we strive for so desperately will actually lead somewhere; that our hearts will be nourished by something more than an iPod Shuffle and new pair of Louboutin wedge heels.

Laura’s voice so clear, the gentle hesitancy and trepidation. There’s such admirable control in the production, such subtle backing layers that when she murmurs “One step, two…” the longing is poignant. And that middle section, with its high, falling ‘ahh’: the one that shivers with tangible sweetness – you feel that to the soul.

Maybe it takes age and experience to give you the bravery to express yourself so sincerely, I don’t know. Bittersweet perhaps, because at the heart of such honest emotion in this song is the fear that keeps her from closing the gap between them. But the simplicity and vibrant emotion here will make you promise, just for a second (before the real world and all its scheming structures flood back in), to live a little braver too.

[johnfoyle]

In the Popmatters interview elsewhere on this forum Laura -



' If "Poor Ellen Smith" is the most interesting song on Cantrell's album, it's a close run thing, because the first and absolutely the best song on Humming By the Flowered Vine is "14th Street". A delicate, beautiful piece that captures a moment of awkward infatuation, temptation and self-knowledge just so, "14th Street" was written by another local talent, Emily Spray, about her own apparently fleeting relationship with no less a soul than Richard Hell many marquee moons ago.

Spray is now married to singer/songwriter Matt Keating. Hopefully, she's so pleased with Cantrell's quite lovely rendition of her song that she can smile broadly through her blushes.

"I told Emily I wouldn't bandy that about," says Cantrell. "The Richard Hell thing. But since it's on the Internet somewhere, I can't avoid it. Yes, she had some little encounter with him and, yes, this song was inspired by that. I've always secretly liked the fact that at the heart of this nice sweet twangy little song is such a great punk figure." '


As you can see , Emily more or less 'outed' herself by talking to her hometown 'paper .

In the Pure Music interview Laura tells how she first heard this song. It was on a CD released by a New York restaurant.

http://www.twoboots.com/HTML/Main_HTML/bootleg.html

' A compilation of local bands, friends, and loyal customers, the Bootleg represents Two Boots' first excursion into the world of record production. Live music provided by local luminaries.

Compilation produced by Jeremy Tepper ( surprise , surprise!)
NOT FOR SALE For Promotion Only '

Besides Emily's version of 14th Street , it also features Laura doing Do You Ever Think Of Me , a song from Not the Tremblin Kind .

As you can see the disc isn't available to buy online . I guess you'll just have to , like me , just e-mail a friend in NY and get them to pop around to the restaurant and see if they can get you a copy !

Two Boots Brooklyn
514 Second St
Brooklyn, NY 11215-2608
(718) 499-3253
Directions: D, Q at Seventh Ave.; F at Seventh Ave.-Ninth St; N, R at Union St.; 2, 3 at Grand Army Plaza.

[johnfoyle]

My Manhattan friend is challeneged by my request - ( posted here with permission)


' ....Brooklyn. I live on an island. There is
water between me and Brooklyn. I haven't been there
this century. On rare occasions I have been known to
go to the mainland to do things like take a sick
parent to the hospital, but otherwise I stay on my
island. And Brooklyn isn't even on the mainland.
It's another island. But pretends not to be -- it's
on Long Island, but everyone thinks of Long Island as
the part further down than Brooklyn and Queens. So
how I can be sure it is where it says it is and that I
won't get lost and that I will be able to return to my
sophisticated chic life in Manhattan?

Subway? In the summer heat? The subway cars are
air-conditioned but the stations are not to be
believed in weather like we've been having the last
few weeks. And they have staircase upon staircase of
steps. And they are twenty minutes away from where I
live. I mean, really now, Brooklyn?

However, Two Boots is a pizza place that also has at
least three restaurants in Manhattan, and maybe they
have the CD. Everybody seems to love them. Whenever
we go see a friend's dance performances, which are
usually in the East Village, we go there afterwards.


And it's just pizza, so I don't get it. Maybe they
have other Italian food, but I've never seen anyone
eating anything other than pizza. But, their beer and
soda is served in these really cool glasses that are
cowboy boots. That must be the appeal. It's
certainly enough for me. I rarely go to restaurants
for their food. Atmosphere and cool glasses.

The second of the three Manhattan Two Boots I know
about is two buildings up and across the street from
the other, which is bizarre. But they're somewhat
different and do something like play movies or have
film festivals or something interesting. So the Two
Boots restaurants are okay. But I do seem to recall
that they didn't have the cowboy glasses the last time
I was there. Hmm.

The third one is near where I work, so should be easy
to stop by (except they're not open on two of the
three days I work). And of course I can take a trip
to Brooklyn really. So it should all work out. I'll
investigate further as to whether you can still get
the CDs and where and all that jazz.'

[johnfoyle]

Hurrah - a copy of the Two Boots disc reaches me!

Ms Spray's original version of 14th Street is a fascinating listen, a full-on rock production, a angst in the vocal that really makes the semi-stalker content all the more gripping.

Here's an mp3 of it

http://s43.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2USLSM598KLY81IQPGHCRTG5P6

[Paulw]

Glad your epic quest has had a successful conclusion, John, and thanks very much for posting the mp3.

[ElasticNoNoBand]

Agreed.
Thanks very much for posting the mp3.

Also, Two Boots is great because it has GREAT pizza -- it's the only place where you can get weird semi-cajun pizza slices and then (at the Lower East Side location) walk right into a video store and then go around the corner and see a great flick.

[johnfoyle]

Ms Spray makes one of her rare vocal appearances here -


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JGCUR6/ref=pd_rvi_gw_1/102-8487661-0658510?ie=UTF8

My Old Man: A Tribute to Steve Goodman [CD]
Ana Egge (Author), Matt Keating & Emily Spray (Author), Crescent & Frost (Author), Chris Brown (Author), Luther Wright and The Wrongs (Author), Anna Hovhannessian (Author), Rosanna Goodman (Author), Tony Scheerr (Author), Kate Fenner (Author), Teddy Kumpel (Author)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt Keating & Emily Spray - Danger


http://www.stevegoodman.net/news.shtml

[9000]

Also, Two Boots is great because it has GREAT pizza -- it's the only place where you can get weird semi-cajun pizza slices and then (at the Lower East Side location) walk right into a video store and then go around the corner and see a great flick.

mel cooley. mmmm.