Marianne Faithful Release March 17th

Marianne Faithful will release her 22nd album “Easy Come, Easy Go” on March 17. From what I just heard of her cover of “The Crane Wife 3″ featuring Nick Cave, it’s going to be an exciting new group of music by one of our favorite singers. Ms. Faithful is covering songs written by Dolly Parton, Billie Holiday, The Decemberists, Bessie Smith, Biran Eno, Randy Newman, Smokey Robinson, Sean Lennon, Morrissey and Merle Haggard. She is joined by a great line up of guest, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Teddy Thompson, Antony Hegarty, and Keith Richards. She has even announced two shows in NYC 3/27 and 3/28.

Marianne Faithful – Cancels Tour 2006

I was really looking forward to November 1, 2006, Dave A and I had purchased tickets to see Marianne Faithful at the House of Blues. It would be our third time to see Ms. Fiathful in concert and we had enjoyed her so much the first two times we were sure the smaller venue would be a great place to see her perform her many beautifully written songs. Unfortunately Ms. Faithful announced that she had to cancel the concert due to her diagnosis of breast cancer, with great panache she has declared she will be back with a passion and a tour in 2007. We will be there. It often saddens me that these great female singers, Marianne Faithful, Ricki Lee Jones, Patti Smith, Lucinda Williams, Joni Mitchell, PJ Harvey are relagated to the back of the list of great stars while those that were great rock stars some time ago march out on the world with much aclaim from the record industry bought criticsm huge stadium sellouts and audiences clamouring to see them, like the Rolling Stones (sorry they haven’t made good music since the 70s), the Who – there’s only two of them left and it’s still the Tommy show, Tom Petty claiming he is not going to perform anymore – and yet greats like Marianne, Patti, Lucinda, Ricki continue to make good well written music, full of emotion and love. Not one of Marianne’s CDs is without a gem and well worth a long rotation on the CD list. Our last encounter with Ms. Faithful was at the Henry Fonda Theater on Hollywood Blvd.

As you can see from the ticket it was supposed to be GA – which we thought meant would enable us to be close to the stage to see and be near Marianne. Instead we found that the concert was going to be recorded for posterity on DVD and we ended up in the balcony seats right in front of the sound board – it was a good location, the sound was perfect, but we had hoped for up, close and personal. At least this time the crowd we were seeing her with was adoring, when we saw her with friends, David and Cameron at the Royce Hall we were surrounded by the blue rinse ticket holder crowd that blanched when Ms. Faithful started singing her famous and startling song at least for the over the hill gang, “Why D’ya Do It”.

When we found out the concert was being recorded we were excited to purchase the DVD – but I have to say the production quality of the DVD is wanting and doesn’t show the greatness of the chanteuse nor the banter that she had going with the crowd during the whole show. At least it is a recording, myself I find her “Blazing Away” live concert on CD a better example of her power and beauty. The CD covers all of the songs she sang which are listed below.
1. Trouble In Mind 2. Falling From Grace 3. Mystery Of Love 4. Ballad Of Lucy Jordan 5. She 6. No Child Of Mine 7. Last Song 8. Kissin’ Time 9. Times Square 10. Working Class Hero 11. Incarceration Of A Flower Child 12. Strange Weather 13. Guilt 14. As Tears Go By 15. Sister Morphine 16. Crazy Love 17. Broken English 18. Why D’ya Do It Get strong Marianne we can’t wait to see you again. d