(12-TRACK LP/ 1997)
Ian Janis. Janis Ian. Man or boy? Woman or girl? Strange name, whatever the presumed outcome. Realistically, she�s most definitely American, female & languishing round Middle-age. And she makes it widely-known she likes folk-music� a lot. Exclusively acoustic based, quality melodies trip along without ceremony or confrontation, as Janis (of course� as in Joplin!) gets dependently hung-up over her lover/s.
It wouldn�t be so bad meeting her down a dark alley to swop love letters, but her will-to-live�s lost through the emotively-raw, honestly impassioned folk-rock of �Getting Over You� - that�s sweepingly reprised with strings come the final track - made no easier by on-setting PMT; at-most, her soft, sincere voice blends perfectly with her subtle finger-picking and light strumming, but she really lets-rip when the full horror of life alone really kicks-in� �And what will I do with my mornings? What will I do with my nights?�
Few big ambitions challenge, despite her valiantly �Searching For America� (�We walked until the pavement bled� into a place that knows no spring, where only steel and silver sing�), poetically observing a sad loss-of-innocence, that works on a multitude of levels. She�s literally hopeless in wanting to get overly romantic, and will appeal to any real �country music� fan as she shows her grief �the exit� via these syrupy love songs that so-obviously strike not one powerchord: to affect and connect, they don�t need deafening vibrancy or shouty anger. She sings and she plays � and Janis means every word, every note.
The slow, overlong (@ 7mins 53, with a tediously-drawled spoken-word intro) stall of live-recorded track 7, �Welcome To Acousticville� (�She checked me in, wearing nothing but her hair�), effectively breaks the LP up into one of 2 halves. The outstanding, race-related history lesson of �Black And White� (�Nothing�s sadder than the man who thinks he�s free, when he is chained to the prison of his hatred� and if Jesus was a black man, it�s his words that we remember�), �On The Dark Side Of Town� (�Where new lovers meet at the old lost-&-found� I wound up talking with your wife, she says you�ve got another life�) and �Honour Them All� (�It�s a lucky man who ends up in good company�) can bog themselves down with cringeworthy sentimentality (esp. �Honour��), but are always buoyantly redeemed by the utter charm and passion she exhibits� this isn�t lovelorn �Country� the arguably tacky, unoriginally bland and emotionally �false� way that Dolly Parton, LeAnn Rimes et al ply it. This time it�s personal� (Steve Rudd)
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