Shona Laing

Whispering Afraid

and...

Shooting Stars (are only seen at night)

Make no mistake, I genuinely love progressive rock, but one can't make a meal of it. Even I need a rest-break from non-stop key changes and time-signature shifts at times. At such times, sometimes a simple singer-songwriter record is just the break one needs.

The "singer-songwriter" phenomenon is, in general, more well-respected than prog-rock (which on the respectability scale tends to fall somewhere between disco and Grand Funk Railroad). It's also an immensely diverse genre (if it can even be called that)...what more needs to be said when "singer-songwriter" can mean anything from John Martyn to Carly Simon to Tim Buckley? Certain singer-songwriters have long been overlooked, only to be rediscovered years after their flourishing. How else to explain the current "hipness" of folk-singer Nick Drake, who recorded his last material circa 1975?

Still, there are some singer-songwriters whose material is largely forgotten. Take Shona Laing, for example. In the States, she's mainly known for some socially-conscious Fairlight-synth-pop tunes such as "Soviet Snow" from the late 80's, but she's had a much longer career than many Americans or Europeans realize. In fact, in her native New Zealand, her career stretches back to the early 70's. And it's that time period on which I'll be concentrating in this review. Specifically, on her first two albums: Whispering Afraid and Shooting Stars (are only seen at night).

A bit of history, first of all. The young Shona came on the scene circa 1972 with a folky single called "1905." It became a big hit in NZ and Australia, won all sorts of awards and garnered notice even in Japan and Southeast Asia. Two albums and a half dozen singles followed, and while the fourth and fifth singles ("I'm Crying Too" and "Rainbow") were her best ever, they were considerably less commercially successful compared two her first three. Thus after the surprise novelty hit "I love my feet" in 1975, Shona moved to the UK in search of greater things.

Sadly, Shona's talents went largely unnoticed and underappreciated in old Blighty. A few singles and a long-player (1982's Tied To The Tracks, released only in Great Britain and Canada) were all that resulted. These garnered her a little airplay but no commercial success to speak of. She did earn the respect of fellow musicians, though, notably Manfred Mann, on whose Somewhere in Afrika album she sang in 1984. It was Shona's highest-profile gig to date. More importantly, Mann introduced Shona to the world of synthesizers, something which would change her whole sound.

Upon returning to the Antipodes in 1985, Shona immediately released a Fairlight-laden LP entitled Genre. Released on the small Pagan label, it was initially greeted with little fanfare. But gradually, the tune "Not A Kennedy" (with its memorable samples of John F. Kennedy speeches) crept up the charts in Australia, and by 1986 it was receiving acclaim and airplay from as far away as Germany. Virgin Records signed Shona, and they built an album of new tracks around a remixed version of "(Glad I'm) Not A Kennedy" entitled South. The haunting "Soviet Snow," the six-minute centerpiece of South, earned Shona an entirely new audience. A rather butchered version of South (substituting some tracks, like the controversial "Neutral and Nuclear Free," for tracks from Genre) appeared on the TVT label in the States, where the video to "Soviet Snow" received heavy rotation on MTV.

Never terribly prolific, Shona released only three albums in the nineties: New On Earth, Shona and Roadworks, each more stripped-down than the last (Roadworks was entirely acoustic). Of all her albums, only the edited American version of South remains generally available, New On Earth and Shona having fallen out of print years ago, CD's of Genre and Roadworks never having garnered so much as an American release...and the others never having made it to CD at all. For someone as talented as Shona, that's pretty shabby treatment.

Compared to later albums, Whispering Afraid and Shooting Stars seem to occupy a different world. I've heard some listeners (who were first exposed to Shona via "Soviet Snow") expressing shock when they were met with the stripped-down sound on New On Earth. One can only imagine what their reaction to Whispering Afraid would be. Her voice is far more youthful and searching, her outlook far less jaded. And the arrangements are far more organic, a far cry from the high-tech (for the 80's) Fairlight synthesizer arrangements of Genre and South.

Whispering Afraid opens with a lush string fanfare—a bit of telegraphing, this is the main theme from the album's title song—then it's straight into Shona's debut single, "1905." It's easy to see how this tune endeared her to an entire nation, harder to see why it didn't find her a broader audience around the world. Strummed acoustic guitar and driving drums carry the rhythm, with a light string orchestration enterring in the chorus, adding a nice colour to proceedings. The lyrics tell a tale of sadness and regret over lost time, certainly something we can all relate to.

"Lady Dipton" has quite a different tone. It's about a friend of hers she met at a holiday resort, and in the larger sense, is about the sense of well-being talking to a friend gives one. This charming little tune (the original B-side to the "1905" single) features perhaps the simplest and most intimate arrangement on the album, just Shona and her acoustic guitar alone.

"You are the one" again offers a shift in tone. Something of a highly positive and optimistic "protest song," it seems she was influenced by the "passive resistance" of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to compose this little ditty. "Peaceful revolution, that's what we need," she sings with an air of hope and even slight despair. It's easy to say she was young and naïve to offer sentiments like "You are the one who can change the world," but it's also sweet and charming...in today's hectic and mean-spirited world we could use more of such sentiments. And I doubt even Shona today would offer something in such a positive light. The background music, as with "1905," is led by Shona's acoustic guitar, with a light orchestration of strings and French horn.

The title track follows, and offers another change of mood. In the liner notes, Shona describes the lyrics as "'slightly' depressing." It's basically a rumination on getting older and worrying about one's future. The melody is gorgeous and the lyrics are touching and emotional; in a more just world, this song would be a standard. Another wonderfully subtle Dave Wrightson arrangement compliments the tune: Shona's voice accompanied only by her acoustic guitar and a gentle string and woodwind arrangement.

The A-side closes with "Quiet Night," possibly the most rock-oriented arrangement on the album, opening with decisive organ chords and buoyed along with jangling 12-string guitar. Though the wailing Moog synthesizers over the closing of the track date it a bit, it's really quite a good little tune with Shona in particularly good voice. The bridge ("Let me see through objective eyes...") has chord changes to die for and some wonderfully bluesy electric guitar injections from Wrightson.

A la Motown, each side opens with a single, so with the B-side we're met with "Show Your Love." This one's based more around Dave Fraser's keyboards (acoustic and electric pianos) than earlier tracks. The lyrics definitely decry the Anglo-European emotional iciness. "Have you ever seen how a touch make's people pull away? And to smile at a stranger's not the thing to do today." Certainly more of a wistful and longing tone of voice here than on "You are the one." The mandolin-like bass trills at the end of this track (courtesy of Wrightson) are a nice touch.

"If Only" is another emotional and sad tune with a touching vocal. An odd arrangement on this one, as she's only accompanied by strings for the first verse, the guitar entering only on the second. It's a nice touch, and showed that Wrightson really did know what he was doing.

Shona describes "Like days gone before" as "a sort of answer to 'Whispering Afraid' (unintentionally)." Indeed, the lyrics and entire tone of the song display a much more chipper mood. It's probably the most lovely and folky arrangement on the album, with just acoustic guitar and sparse strings (perhaps just a quartet), even if the tune itself doesn't stick out as well as some of the others. Certainly Shona's dreamy vocals can't be faulted.

"Is Anything Ever Everlasting" is perhaps Shona's most philosophical contribution to the album. "Don't tell me you're going to love me till the sun falls from the sky, that's a lie," she sings, playing havoc with love-song clichés as she muses on the brevity of life and finality of love affairs. She picks up her 12-string here again, backed by a powerful rock drumbeat and eventually joined again by the ubiquitous strings. This again is one of the stronger songs on the album, and deserves to be better-known in the larger sense.

Whispering Afraid closes with Shona's third single, "Masquerade." Actually, this is possibly my least favourite tune on the album, trying as it does to be too many things at once. The delightfully simple (but not simplistic) quality of the album's other tunes is rather undone by "Masquerade." The verses are saddled with some none-too-subtle over-orchestration, anchored by Fraser's electric piano...and the middle section—a sort of country-folkie-jig section with fiddle and handclaps—seems totally inappropriate, as though it were Frankensteined in from a completely different song. The trite "get back to the land" sentiments of the lyrics do not help. Still, I'm willing to cut her slack, as she was still green (no pun intended) as a composer. And the quality of the album's other tunes more than makes up for the shortcomings of "Masquerade."

For her follow-up album, 1974's Shooting Stars (Are Only Seen At Night), Shona worked with a different producer (G. Wayne Thomas) and a different backing group (the Crystal Voyager Band, featuring guitarist Mick Liber and keyboardist Ray Vanderby). The results were often more rock-oriented and more "contemporary" than the rather late-60's folkie sound of much of Whispering Afraid.

"I'm Crying Too" opens the disc with a bang, featuring an assertive brass and string arrangement, and a propulsive rhythmic drive measured by guitars, piano and Bruno Lawrence's tasteful rock drumming. Immediately one feels far from the charming, if monochromatic, sound of Whispering Afraid. Amazingly, the single of "I'm Crying Too" was a bit of a commercial flop compared to her earlier releases, a pity as it's a wonderful song featuring one of Shona's finest, most soulful vocal performances.

"Remains To Be Seen," lyrically, only goes to show that her songwriting has advanced to become rather more elusive. It's tough to say what it's "about" exactly, but it seems directed at someone with whom she was having difficulty communicating. Musically it certainly can't be faulted, this is more of the new, assertive Shona, some of the obvious transition to her more politicized 80's work. It's another rock-like sound, based around her rhythmic acoustic guitar work answered by Mick Liber's choppy electric. Joan Armatrading's early Glyn Johns-produced albums spring to mind as a comparison, though the song is rather darker than most of Armatrading's of the period. There's some subtle orchestration as well, mostly some dark cellos and some jazzy flute inserts. Certainly a more complex arrangement than anything on Whispering Afraid, "Remains To Be Seen" offers a lot to chew on, and is another superb composition excellently performed.

With a synthesizer flourish, "Happy Song" arrives true to its title. A sprightly folk-rock number, Shona's jangly 12-string carries it along accented by bluesy guitar touches from Liber and Moog effects from Vanderby. Not quite as substantial as what's come before, "Happy Song" is a trifle that's nonetheless quite enjoyable.

"This Moment Here" is rather like "Whispering Afraid" in reverse. Whereas "Whispering Afraid" was an expression of anxiety of what the future may hold, "This Moment Here" expresses sadness and regret on what has passed. As such, it receives a similar arrangement of acoustic guitar and gentle strings. And again, it's a lovely song, deserving to be sung by all the greats giving Shona lots of money in residuals rather than languishing in undeserved obscurity.

"Tony" is even more stripped-down, just Shona, her guitar and some subtle, flute-like synthesizer. I can't help but wonder if the song was inspired by a real-life person. And I can't help but wonder, given more recent revelations regarding her sexuality, if the name "Tony" was chosen deliberately for its sexual ambiguity. Too ephermeral and fleeting to be a highlight of the album, it's a pleasing and well-done little number nonetheless.

Opening with a tremulous guitar solo from Liber, "Shooting Stars" certainly has cojones compared to the arrangements on Whispering Afraid. But it's really just an electrified take on her folk-rock. Lyrically, it uses Hollywood stardom and filmmaking as an extended metaphor, a bit of a longwinded way to make a rather hackneyed "Be thankful for what you've got" point. Still, not bad, though I didn't warm up to it initially. I was eventually won over by the rhythmically dynamic chorus.

Opening the B-side is "Someone Like Me," which certainly offers something different from Shona. The arrangement, based on piano and horns, brings to mind late 60's Nilsson sides like "Cuddly Toy." The vocal performance is another corker like "I'm Crying Too," and the lyrics are snappy with some wonderful turns of phrase ("You can keep your Mercedes Benz/And your Sobrani cigarettes/Your camera with its telephoto lens..."). Liber's searing guitar solo in the middle is the icing on the cake. This is another one that just cries out to be remade by someone with foresight and talent.

True to its title, "I Want You" is kept simple, with a rather plain acoustic guitar/bass/celeste/brushed drums arrangement. As with "Happy Song" and "Tony," it's another trifle, but another enjoyable one.

"Now I Know," on the other hand, deserves better. With a corny MOR arrangement featuring muted horns, strings and a saccharine sax solo worthy of the Carpenters, it sounds like they were trying hard for the "adult contemporary" radio airplay. A pity, as with a more sympathetic arrangement, I'm sure Shona's disarmingly simple songwriting could shine through. As it is, the sappy, dated, "easy listening" sound of the instrumentation swamps her charming performance here. A big waste, I'm afraid.

The more timeless piano/guitar sound on "A Room" acclimates to Shona's voice far more fittingly. Vanderby again adds some subtle Moog melodies here and there, adding a bit of distinction to the sound. Lyrically, though, it's one of Shona's weaker offerings, an attempt at describing all the memories an old room holds, but awkward and not too successful.

Shona regains her footing for "Not so long ago," though. It's another winning combination of strong songwriting, confident singing and a punchy folk-rock arrangement. Like "Quiet Night," this one features a bridge to die for, a feature of Shona's songwriting she would continue to further develop on her 80's and 90's albums.

The album closes with another undeserved flop single (commercially), "Rainbow." This song presages all the more "political" tunes Shona would go on to write in the 80's, such as "Soviet Snow" and "Migrant and Refugee." A sort of harrowing future image along the lines of Tim Rose's "Come Away Melinda," it tells of a mother and son's discussion during an outing to the beach. Images of oil-covered birds, poisoned water and brown skies make this a bit heavy-handed, but powerful. In terms of strong, humanistic songwriting, some of Bruce Cockburn's 80's output (as on albums like Humans or Stealing Fire) could be seen as a fair comparison, though this predates Cockburn's more externally conscious songwriting by some years. Musically, it's a similar arrangement to "Remains to Be Seen," with strings and woodwinds a bit more to the fore, and Vanderby's delicate piano providing the perfect, poignant foil to Shona's vocals...which again are in the darker mode reminding of "Remains to Be Seen." "Rainbow" is a near-perfect song acting as a perfect album-closer, and again it deserves far more recognition. It alone makes the purchase of the album worthwhile. Fortunately, it's not the only reason Shooting Stars deserves to be heard.

So, who should track down these two rarities? Proggers need not apply, unless you have an open mind; this music is pretty far from complex. Fans of Shona's 80's music expecting more synth-oriented stuff will probably likewise be disappointed. But fans of her 90's output, people into singer-songwriters in the vein of Bruce Cockburn or Joan Armatrading, or just fans of well-written songs emotionally performed and succinctly arranged will find much to enjoy here, particularly on Shooting Stars. In spite of its minor weaknesses round about Side Two, Shooting Stars is an excellent album, deserving of a much larger audience. Such is unlikely any time soon, only the single tracks ever made it to CD, and then only on the long out-of-print compilation 1905-1990: A Retrospective. So come on, Phonogram, make these available on CD!

Buy 'em: Check for availability of the LP's over at gemm.com. And good luck!
Or get CD's of other albums by Shona at Amazon, using the link provided below:

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