November 17, 2015 | 0 Comments

ELIZA RICKMAN – FOOTNOTES FOR THE SPRING is at Top 200 Radio Now!!!

My dear friend Eliza Rickman is basically a Disney Princess with a dark side. I’m not kidding, listen to this record and tell me otherwise. Comparisons to Kate Bush or Amanda Palmer would also not be out of line. Besides just being her wonderful self, putting out several fantastic records (the last of which I also got to send to you radio pals), and touring the US and Europe regularly, you may also have heard of Eliza if you’re a podcast fan—she’s a regular musical guest on WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE; in fact, she’s just finished up a tour with them (and is now blazing a trail through Europe on her own)! PRETTY COOL RIGHT! It’s hard to describe what exactly is special about this record without just playing it for you, so DEFINITELY make sure to give it a listen right away if you haven’t yet (trust me). Now it’s time to finish up with review and get this thing spinning and out to the masses, and start pushing it up your Top 30s pronto!!

ELIZA RICKMAN

FOOTNOTES FOR THE SPRING

Self-Released

There is always a hint of menace and reservoirs of force haunting the corners of Eliza Rickman’s voice, whatever register it occupies. Her presence on stage – whether she wears flowers in her hair, or stuffed birds; whether she plays a toy piano or a grand piano – is an enveloping, soft darkness, impossible to ignore. It has been three years between Rickman’s first album, O, You Sinners, and her newest effort, Footnotes for the Spring. In those intervening three years, Rickman added the autoharp to her repertoire, fought illness and heartbreak (and won), and turned 30. But mostly, she toured. She is a frequent featured musical act for the live rendition of the popular podcast “Welcome to Night Vale“, she joined the band Rasputina for a handful of dates, and she organized her own successful solo European tour.

During those three years, Rickman’s vocal delivery has also developed a new breathlessness. She wrote all the string arrangements on her debut, but friend Jason Webley produced and orchestrated Footnotes. Here, Rickman’s voice casts its shadow against Webley’s shimmering strings and a Phil Spector style wall of sound, flecked with melancholy and nostalgia. This clutch of songs comprises, among others, “Lark of my Heart”, written to commemorate the wedding day of Margaret Rucker, an unknown poet whose scrapbook was found in a dumpster many years after her death; “Now and Then”, whose opening lines encapsulate the juxtaposition at the heart of the album – Oh, to be young again/blood is on my hands – and “Wax Nostalgic”, whose title speaks for itself. But this is nostalgia without sentimentality. Rickman’s voice has the power to hold the smallest grain of sadness, an intimation that the longed-for innocence depicted in her lyrics has slipped just below the glow of the orchestra and out of sight.

RIYL: Amanda Palmer, Kate Bush, Disney Princesses, “Welcome to Night Vale”,

Jason Webley, Rufus Wainwright, Rasputina, Jherek Bischoff, Andrew Bird

Start With: 2, 8, 3, 7 FCC CLEAN