Search - Claudia Schmidt :: It Looks Fine From Here

Claudia at her best!

Barb | 02/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"High energy, heart-felt. Each song is worth listening to over and over"

Claudia Schmidt - It Looks Fine From Here

Barb | 02/25/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am so grateful to labels like Red House Records for bringing us such exquisitely crafted folk music in a world that seems so focused on the pop-artist flavor of the month.



Claudia Schmidt's vocals are so pure...If I had to describe them to someone who has never heard her, I would say her voice often sounds like something between Mary Chapin Carpenter and Mary Travers. But on "We Don't Know," for example, she puts me more in mind of Rory Block. Her voice is clear as a bell, warm, strong, and soulful.



All of the music and lyrics on this 1994 production were composed by Schmidt. At times bluesy, at times very traditional, at times a bit jazzed up. Schmidt accompanies herself on 12-string guitar and mountain dulcimer. The wonderful Dean Magraw joins her on 6-string guitar, and contributes vocals on "Rising," as does Marc Anderson, who otherwise contributes a wide variety of percussion to the album.



Schmidt's lyrics share stories, messages, and some exquisite imagery. A couple of my favorite snippets:



From "We Don't Know" -



Television be telling us that we never have enough

Day and night screams we'll never be happy till we're drowning in a sea of stuff

We ought to lose the box and find a vision of the way that life can be

Full of laughter you can't buy, full of love that's entirely free

We don't know, we don't know, we don't know what to do with what we've got



From "Another Kind" -



All love is real that flies forth from one's own soul

And when returned in kind, it brings the circle whole

Some circles grow, some will remain in place

Each safe within, and each one full of grace



Schmidt is a gifted singer-songwriter who deserves a far wider audience."