I believe that each of us is given one sentence at birth, and we spend the rest of our life trying to read that sentence and make sense of it.
—
Li Young Lee
Veda Hille’s Spine by Emily Plemons
Part of the Editor's Choice series.
- Yusef Komunyakaa by Paul Muldoon
- Ian McKellen by Scott Mendelsohn
- Sam Taylor-Wood by Bruce Ferguson
- Thomas Nozkowski by Francine Prose
- Alexander Nehamas by David Carrier
- Geoffrey O’Brien by Luc Sante
- Mark Richard by J.D. Dolan
Interviews
- Clifford Ross by Betsy Sussler
- Y.Z. Kami by Goran Tomcic
- Tall Kafka and His Sisters by Cynthia Ozick
Artists on Artists
- At Night by David Ryan
- Two Poems by Elisa Albo
- Sympathy by Jim Thompson
- Under The House by Lynn Freed
- F-105 Over Red River by Neal Durando
- Rita McBride by Mimi Thompson
- Morning Exercise by Robert Lopez
- Disguise by Sheila Kohler
- Leadership by Terese Svoboda
- Two Poems by Tom Sleigh
First Proof
- Jane Kaplowitz by Judith Hudson
- Kathy O’Dell’s Contract With the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s by Coco Fusco
- Cynthia Lovett by Calvin Reid
- Amelia Jones’s Body Art/Performing the Subject by Saul Ostrow
- Veda Hille’s Spine by Emily Plemons
- Lucinda Williams’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road by Gary Fisketjon
- Murray Bail’s Eucalyptus by Betsy Sussler
- Yoel Hoffmann’s Bernard, Katschen & The Book of Joseph by Minna Proctor
- Peter Nádas’s A Book of Memories, translated by Ivan Sanders with Imre Goldstein by Deborah Eisenberg
- James Purdy’s Gertrude of Stony Island Avenue by Linda Yablonsky
- Fernando Pessoa by Robert Polito
- Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful (La Vitá é Bella) by Minna Proctor
- Jim Grimsley’s Mr. Universe and Other Plays by Nelson Taylor
- Tom Butter by Mark Magill
- John Maybury’s Love is the Devil by Lawrence Chua
Editor's Choice
Veda Hille. Photo by Mark Mushet. Courtesy of Bottom Line Record Company, LLC.
The newest arrival in the ever-lengthening line of distinguished Canadian singer/songwriters is the young talent Veda Hille. Spine, her second full-length album (her first released in the United States) is a compelling span of the senses. Rarely does one find a contemporary female artist willing and able to take the risks that Hille takes in each of this album’s 11 tracks.
On Spine, Hille moves effortlessly from solemn piano dirges to arresting, rhythmically challenging rockers; she slips in a refreshing spoken-word piece that is unlike anything her mainstream colleagues are producing.
Standing alternately behind her instruments of choice—a tenor guitar and Steinway piano—Veda Hille’s stage presence is unassuming but encompassing. Though the acoustic renditions of her richly orchestrated songs lack nothing, it is her spoken performance that is most striking. The influence of singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco is apparent, but this album is far from imitation. Veda’s spoken work pushes away from familiar chartable rhythm toward the revelation of an ornate sense of language.
In a time when many musicians are stuck in the rut of recycling, Veda Hille offers something new: lyrics poetic and provocative; guitar sparse and unapologetically dissonant; piano muted and beautiful. Hille’s Spine is a remarkable second album that is fresh each time one listens to it.
—Emily Plemons
Recently released by Bottom Line Record Company.
Related
On being nothing, looking outward, and the obstinant relevance of that popular art form, song.
I first learned of Joanna Newsom when I read a review in the UK’s Observer six years ago. I was initially struck by her beauty, and I was inspired by knowing that she was “in the world.”
Originally published in
BOMB 65,
Fall 1998
Featuring interviews with Yusef Komunyakaa & Paul Muldoon, Ian McKellen, Sam Taylor-Wood, Thomas Nozkowski, Geoffrey O’Brien, Alexander Nehamas, and Mark Richard.
