Alt Country, folk rock

12 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Country Folk, FOLK: Modern Folk



Details:
CD REVIEW

Ted Sink's 'Superette' is top shelf
By Chuck Ginsberg
spotlight@seacoastonline.com


Ted Sink's second release in two years is a collection of 12 meaty originals with Sink on lead and back-up vocals and nylon and acoustic guitar. His love for the pedal steel sound (i.e., country) and Neil Young are prominent but the music is tasty, never cloying and eminently listenable, multiple times. The lyrics, however, are the star, 180 degrees from triteness.

Sink has something to say and he does it well. Rereading the lyrics in the liner notes, even after the music has stopped, is an exercise we indulged in several times with the stereo turned low.

Topics include relationships, mostly rocky, but always deeply felt, with self, lovers, fantasized lovers, fellow humans, religion and "the bitter teardrops of war," life and death. There is one exception. "Another Heartache Country Song" is just that, a nimble, playful spoof of the generic heartache country song.

Sink's song titles are often harbingers of the text to follow. Titles like "Suspicion," "One Last Time," "Bitter Teardrops, "Twilight Zone," "I'm Not Your Fool," the ironic "Sweet Dreams," "Pointless Conversation," "Love Is a Liar," and "When You Go." In retrospect, they become even more telling.

After roughly a quarter of a century, off and on in various amateur bands, Sink seems to have written the music for two albums in two years. Actually, the music was accumulating all along.

Asked to explain his creative surge, Sink described playing his music for some California friends. The woman cried, and had him play for her professional musician husband. That was the catalyst.

"Over the years I had accumulated notebooks full of lyrics, which I had never done anything with." Back home, he recalls, guitar teacher Kent Allyn suggested he "go for it."

"Once I started it was like I couldn't stop." Six months into the recording process, "I found myself coming up with new material almost on a weekly basis. I was cranking out a different song almost every week. I've got enough stuff for another album."

Sink is abetted by a raft of local stalwarts: co-producer and engineer Andy Happel (violin, cello, back-up vocals); Allyn (bass, keyboards, and dobro); Carri Coltrane and Lucia Nazzaro (back-up vocals); Allyn and Robbie Coffin (lead guitars); Wayne Brewer (pedal steel guitar); Rick Paige, Ron Bouffard, and Jim Rioux (percussion); and Sink's 13-year-old nephew Ben Sink (trombone).

With all that rockiness, and the tendency to look at the underbelly of relationships, why is "Superette" a candidate for a Valentine's Day gift? Because it's real, a loaf of life whose slices resonate with those who've been there. Warning: you'd better be serious; shallow doesn't live here anymore. And a final note, serious and thoughtful are NOT code words for depressing.

The official release date for "Superette" is Friday, Feb. 18, 2005. To celebrate, Sink and a studio band of six (Happel, Allyn, Coltrane, Rioux, Bruce Derr, and brother Tim Sink) will sweeten Portsmouth's performing ozone with songs from "Superette" and Ted Sink's earlier release ("Mistaken") at the Blue Mermaid, 8 p.m. until the material runs out, or the fingers flag, whichever comes first.



Personal and Musical BIO

The second oldest in a Catholic family of 12 children, I grew up in NYC, a suburb of Boston and Manchester NH. My musical tastes and influences are eclectic. I sing in a classical choral group that performs Mozart, Haydn and Bach. I love the precision and direct emotional kick of country music. I love the harmonic dissonance of jazz. I love Latin rhythms. I love folk music, and the classic torch songs and jazz ballads of the 40âs and 50âs. I love the Stones and the Eagles, the Beach Boys, Steely Dan, Charlie Mingus, Monk, Sheryl Crow, Shaun Colvin and Iâm getting tired of trying to remember names.

I bought a Silvertone guitar from the Sears catalog when I was a sophomore in high school, and kept it at a friendâs house where I learned to play songs by Elvis, Duane Eddy and The Kingston Trio. In the Navy, I taught myself jazz chords from books and by listening to Charlie Byrd records. I even performed some in a Norfolk, VA coffee house with a bass player. I couldnât read music, had a weak singing voice, and wasnât much of a player. But I loved doing it.

I started recording music and writing seriously in 2000. I knew nothing about the process but jumped in and learned by doing. Along the way I received a lot of help from great players and teachers. Most of the songs on these CDs (Superette and Mistaken) are love songs based on either specific or general experiences. I had my first girlfriend at age 17 in mind when I wrote âJust Another Jim.â Both of my ex-wives are represented. Some songs are about very brief but important relationships from the late 80s and early 90s. âMidnight Angelâ is about a relationship I was tempted by but managed to avoid by the skin of my teeth. And most of the later material is about a significant long-term relationship that survived a number of tragedies but finally tanked in a paroxysm of despair and heartache ââ¬" mine, not hers. See âTwilight Zone.â

There are a few non-love songs too. âElvisâs Underpantsâ is about a visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. âAlready Deadâ is a black humor look at spiritual disenfranchisement. âBitter Teardropsâ is my reaction to the crusade-like wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. âSuspicionâ is about jealousy in the abstract. âGospelâ is about that.

I like all the music on these albums, but if I had to pick representative favorites they would be âSuperetteâ (Superette #1ââ¬" alt country, tells a true story); âTwilight Zoneâ (Superette #5 ââ¬" jazz ballad/ heartache love song); âOne Last Timeâ (Superette #3 ââ¬" alt country love song, tells a story); âAnother Heartache Country Song" (Superette #6 ââ¬" classic Nashville country & western, tells a story); âRun To Youâ (Mistaken #12 ââ¬" a gospel/torch love song); âTalk To meâ (Mistaken #1 ââ¬" a Latin jazz love song; and âJust Another Jimâ (Mistaken #2 ââ¬" Steely Dan influenced blues pop, tells an allegorical story). If I had to do it all over again, I would make âRun To Youâ the title cut of my first album.

Ted Sink