Gather Honey

by Penny Lang

Overview

For anyone who was an adolescent during the '60s, the cover photo of an earnest-looking young woman in a poncho strumming an acoustic guitar may bring a warm sense of nostalgia. Those who were born during that decade tend, when faced with such an image, to roll their eyes. But those who approach this album expecting empty earnestness and hippie-dippy platitudinizing will be pleasantly surprised. There are no misguided attempts to cure the world's ills through songs lifted from someone else's misunderstood folk culture; Penny Lang takes contemporary urban folk and blues songs and delivers them in a voice both powerful and unaffected. Listening to this chronological document, which opens with her earliest recording from 1963 and ends with recordings made in the late '70s, you hear her voice grow in strength and distinctiveness, but she never lets her own stylistic choices get in the way of the songs themselves. (In that sense, she has more in common with Ella Fitzgerald than with, say, Buffy Sainte-Marie, even though her voice is closer in quality to the latter than the former.) Highlights here include that first recording, a hair-raising rendition of "In the Pines," and a dated but charming cover of Paul Lauzon's "Start Again." Recommended. ~ Rick Anderson

Product Details

Release Date:	12/17/2002
Label:	Borealis Records
UPC:	0773958113725
Rank:	251214

Tracks

1. In the Pines
2. Gather Honey
3. Broke Down Girl
4. Come Accross to You
5. This Is All There Is
6. Trouble in Mind
7. Start Again
8. Howl You Winds
9. No Place Left to Go
10. Lady Nancy
11. Three O'Clock Ride
12. To Find a Way
13. Give It Up or Let Me Go
14. Bright Lights and Promises
15. Senses of Your Leave
16. Gather Honey
17. Waiting for a Train
18. Papa Don't

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Penny Lang   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals
Roma Baran   Guitar
Ken Pearson   Piano
Scot Lang   Guitar,Percussion,Bass (Electric),Guitar (Electric)
Don Audet   Harmonica

Technical Credits

Penny Lang   Composer
Patrick Sky   Composer,Producer
Roma Baran   Photo Courtesy
Jesse Winchester   Liner Notes
Jimmie Rodgers   Composer
Richard M. Jones   Composer
Ronney Abramson   Composer
Gary Cristall   Liner Notes
Gabriel Boucher   Engineer
Chris Rawlings   Composer
Bruce Murdoch   Composer
Jorn Reissner   Engineer
Christopher Kearney   Composer
Bill Horan   Composer
Andre Riopel   Engineer
Heidi Fleming   Compilation Producer
Traditional   Composer
Simon Pressey   Mastering
Bill Usher   Interviewer
Bonnie Raitt   Composer
Janis Ian   Composer
Mark D. Goldman   Producer