AUTHOR / SONGWRITER APRIL MARTIN
DISCUSSES HER NEW CD, TRACK BY TRACK
Out Of My Hands
Because I’m older I tend to write songs about how life looks when you step back and survey the decades. This song is about how life takes us far afield from the expectations we start out with – a reality that everyone who’s ever been a parent knows particularly vividly. We can cry about that, and sometimes we have to. But in this song I wanted simply to surrender to it and laugh about it.
It’s A Shame
When we’re head over heels in love it always activates a part of us that is needy, longing, fearful that it won’t work out. For those of us who like to see ourselves as strong and powerful adults, the feeling of being overtaken by such out of control and childish emotions may be hard to tolerate. I wrote this in a minor blues groove to give it that “feels so good that it hurts so bad” sensuality.
Cold Light Of Day
Sometimes you can want the relationship more than the actual person you’ve chosen to build a life with. That cold light of day moment is when you finally allow yourself to see what a sham it’s been. This is a pretty sad story, because nobody meant to hurt anybody but everyone ends up hurt.
Got A Way To Go
Can’t you hear Muppets getting on the bus to this song? This song is fun for no good reason except the joy of doing what we do during the day.
Love’s Been A Long Time Coming
I know so many smart, sweet, attractive, successful people who’ve been single for a long time and don’t want to be. Who knows why some of us find partners when we’re young and others have to wait a long time? The waiting can be hard.
I Don’t Know
Our deepest spiritual beliefs get called into question in times of tragedy. How do you make sense of God and life when awful things can happen? I lost a child many years ago. In this song I remember sitting up with him during his last night on earth, bewildered by everything except that I loved him.
I’ll Never Understand
I had an “aha!” experience one day when my children were little. I looked at them playing and was simply dumbstruck with how powerful this thing we call love is. My mother was a scientist and an atheist and not sentimental about much of anything. But in that one moment I realized how wrong she was. Love is the most extraordinary force in the universe and all the science in the world will never explain it.
When She Says Yes
This song aims to capture the feeling of intense vulnerability and emotional openness that sexual surrender may mean to a woman. That surrender may be an act of courage, and is surely a great gift of soul that’s not to be taken lightly.
I Know What He Means
Both my grandfathers are portrayed in this song. Though one was Italian and one was Jewish, they shared a quiet, unassuming kindness that radiated in everything they did.
I Won’t Make That Mistake
When life makes us an offer of something good and nourishing, we can take the risk of saying yes to it or we can turn away because we’re afraid. This song is about what happens when we turn away.
Bye-Bye
Sometimes you have to write an angry song, know what I mean? Got anybody who deserves the boot?
One Kiss In The Rain
Passion. New love. The way it consumes us, energizes us, commands us to the point of exhaustion. Pretty grand stuff, love.
It Ain’t About The Chassis
Well…uh…I’m 62, and I can assure you that the packaging just isn’t as sleek and shiny as it once was. Feeling sexy has to come more and more from the imagination as we get older, I guess, but I’m planning on keeping my imagination young for as long as I live.
Warrior Of The Heart
Peter Calo gave this song an almost medieval feel with the recorders and I think it suits the depth of what is expressed here. This is a love song, yes, but it’s also an ode to courage of a particular kind: the courage to love with a steadfast faith through the years.
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REVIEWS
JERSEY BEAT - ROBERT BARRY FRANCOS!
WINTER 2011 http://www.jerseybeat.com/quietcorner.html
THE QUIET CORNER, by Robert Barry Francos
 | I know APRIL MARTIN has released “Pennies in a Jar” (Shrimp Toast c/o aprilmartin.com) in a CD format, but at its heart, it really is an LP, with two sides; but I get ahead of myself here… Coming into being as a singer-songwriter in the form of an artist rather than a consumer a bit late in life, April shows that some things are worth the wait. She has a very clear voice, which is smartly put right up front by producer Peter Calo (whose previous work with artists such as Mary Gatchell [see above], along with his own, show he has sharp ears), resonates in a way that feels like she is sitting in the living room singing to the listener, and there is some comfort in that. Backed by Peter on guitar, along with some other fine musicians, she is obviously singing from the heart. The first “side” of this release focuses in on a slight lack of control in one’s life, where things are just out of reach, or mysterious. “Out of My Hands” (“All my schemes are written in sand”), “Got a Way to Go” (“Don’t know where there is / But I’m heading down the line”), “I Don’t Know” (“I don’t know just how much is in our hands / “I don’t know, is there any sort of plan?”), and “Love’s Been a Long Time Coming” (“Thought it would surely be here by now”) bring life’s experiences of “hunh? wha?” to an emotional depth that is far from alienating an audience, but rather touches the heart gently. The tone of the CD changes with the sexy “When She Says Yes,” or as I like to call the start of side two. From here we enter different phases of love from the aforementioned lust (along with an amusing flapperish ‘20s rag “It Ain’t About the Chassis Anymore”), affection (“One Kiss in the Rain” and “Warrior of the Heart”), and the goodbye (told in both sad mode with “I Won’t Make That Mistake Again” and the Lisa Loeb-style empowering “Bye-Bye”). Not a bad cut here. This may be her first release, but I’m hoping it won’t be her last, nor that it will be too long a wait. |
