Search - Ivor Cutler :: Sitting in a Scotch Sitting Room

"What to do if a leopard attacks..."

boeanthropist | Cambridge, MA | 01/18/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Much more intimate versions of these stories than the recordings of them scattered across most of his studio albums. Cutler is hysterically funny before a live audience, telling these tales of his childhood (which ultimately evoke the quotidian brutality of Russian folktales as much as they do the slums of Glasgow) with their humorous evocations of dire poverty, constant family violence, and the helplessness of children as an almost supreme representation of reality -- heavy stuff, to be sure, so it's nice to hear him cracking up at his own jokes while he reads and fondles his wheezy old harmonium. The truly appreciative audience doesn't hurt either. Cutler's is a world like no one else's, and this particular glimpse into that world has not made as many roommates curse my very existence as, say, "Velvet Donkey" or "Prince Ivor" have, but it comes damned close."

Good for those with a short attention span

kathy | 02/07/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"as most of his bits are 30 sec.- 2 min. His voice is warm, a wonderful Scottish lilt, and his stories and songs remind me of Lewis Carrol/ John Crowley (if indeed they were to have a seventy year old skinny male child with glasses who spoke with brevity and wit and had a penchant for animals). Best heard when drifting into sleep on a rainy Sunday afternoon."