Search - Mary Lee's Corvette :: Blood on the Tracks

Now This Takes Guts

08/14/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"What on earth is she doing, thinking she can go onstage and do a song-for-song performance of one of Bob Dylan's greatest records ever? I had my doubts when I heard about this; but then I listened. And I was amazed. I was amazed at how great these songs sounded being sung by a woman with an amazingly soulful voice. The bitter anger and rage of "Idiot Wind", the sweet, sweet "Buckets Of Rain", the sad resignation and sarcasm of "You're A Big Girl Now" all come shining through. And the spontaneity of the whole evening is captured in the annoying, but thankfully short performance of an audience member during "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts". This is a must for any Dylan fan. Mary Lee Kortes has managed to make you want to listen to these songs all over again and she makes you hear them in a new way. She reminds you of what gems they are and to rejoice in the fact that these songs exist in the world. Don't miss it...and at the very least, give her the respect she deserves for taking on this very daunting challenge and rising to it."

A Fresh Look At A Great Work

William C. Altreuter | Buffalo, NY USA | 07/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Jorge Luis Borges created an author who set out to re-write "Don Quixote" as a contemporary work and ends up creating a verbatim transcript of the original. The story's narrator, a critic who is reviewing the "new" Quixote, argues that Menard's work is characterized by an ironic subtlety, and is, therefore, a distinct artistic achievement.
My copy of Mary Lee Kortes' "Blood On The Tracks" arrived yesterday. A few years back New York bar called Arlene's Grocery had a promotion called Classic Album Night: performers were invited to do a set consisting of song for song renditions of iconic sides. Ms. Kortes volunteered to do "Blood On The Tracks" as the finale on an evening when other artists had done "After The Gold Rush" and The Band's second album
. The document that resulted is a useful way to re-listen to a work that can sometimes elude its original emotional impact due to over-familiarity. There is no better album about heartbreak-- "Sinatra Sings For Only the Lonely" and "In the Wee Small Hours" are its only peers-- but because of its immediacy, and because it has been so frequently applied as a balm its power can occasionally be blunted. Ms. Kortes knows its power, and approaches each song with a freshness that signals her enthusiasm and deep love for the material. She understands "Blood On The Tracks", and feels it the way that all of us who love the album have felt it."You'll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above"-- it must have felt wonderful to have snarled those words in front of a tight playing band, halfway through the set, knowing that she'd found the heart of this music and that this risky adventure was coming together. Ron Rosenbaum's theories notwithstanding, I believe that the key to "Blood On The Tracks" is "You're A Big Girl Now", which is Dylan's singing at its most plaintive. She nails it. She even gets the humor, calling up an audience member to sing the first couple of verses of "Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts". The liner notes say that the guest vocalist told her later that he'd almost lost his job at the law firm where he worked because of his undignified performance, but it is hilarious, a little tour of Dylan's vocal quirks. It's too bad, in a way, because I love the song and would like another serious version, but in the context of the album it really works. Too bad she sticks to the verses on the album: there is at least one-- Joan Baez sings it-- that he skips, so she skips it too. ("Lilly" is one of those Dylan songs that sounds like he must have a trunk full of, even though it really is unique. A symbolic Western-- could anything be more Dylanesque? There are plenty of Dylan shaggy dog stories, but nothin' like the Jack of Hearts.)The whole thing is an audacious experiment that works, and I'm glad I found it. I think I'll check out her original work: she has an appealing voice and a good band."

Decent, but a little overrated

jeff-99 | Brooklyn, NY United States | 09/27/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Combine a good voice, a tight back-up band, and a set of some of the best songs ever written, and you will get a very enjoyable album, and indeed, you can't go wrong buying this one. So why do I call it overrated? Because 4 or 5 stars (Rolling Stone gave it 4) requires more originality--some flash, at least, of creative brilliance. Without any of their own songs on the album, this can only be achived through creative interpretations of Dylan's songs, but that's generally lacking on this album. There are a few notable exceptions, such as the psyschedelic touch on Meet me in the Morning, and some interesting pacing in other songs. In some ways the most original aspect of the album was the choice of including that bit with the random guy in the bar doing Lilly and the Jack of Hearts. The guy cleverly parodies dylan's exaggerated vocal style on the original BOTT (eg in Idiot Wind), while giving us a tour of Dylan's many voices--giving us his BOTT voice in one line, jumping to Nashville Skyline in the next, and Dylan's Oh Mercy voice a bit later. Buckets of Rain, by the way, I think is a great interpretation, and throughout the album is technically excellent. I was a little disappointed that she went with Dylan's angry interpretation of Idiot Wind (the one you get on the original BOTT) rather than a sad melancholy interpretation as Dylan does in the bootlegs (my personal favorite)."