Issue
#153
Nov. '11
The
break-up song,
a Rock-n-Roll staple since the beginning,
you may find more D-I-V-O-R-C-E in Country, but Rock-n-Roll can claim
just as
much of that right along with Blues, Jazz and more. The Divorce album
was made
famous with Bob
Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, although
don’t over look the power
of Elvis
Costello’s Imperial
Bedroom and When
I Was Cruel
(both personal favs).
Fractured relationships, doomed passion, the beauty of love for the
beauty it
is, the hurt, pain and glory to have loved as best you can. It makes
for the
ultimate emotional music experience.
The
Nevers wedding
invitation like cover art bids us to bear
witness to Saint
Bernadette’s break-up/divorce album. It was
written and
recorded as the relationship was crumbling, much like The Beatles with
“Let I
Be,” but this documentation of the
deconstruction is
displayed from both sides
of an intimate relationship, a perspective that the fab four could
never rival.
It invites us past the reception and into their relationship, both
musical and
personal, to the point where we hear the stark confessions of broken
hearts
laid bare and tortured souls exposed, in a crossed-referenced personal
insight
of imagery and truth. It’s been chronicled before, but to
hear it, experience
it from the inside, from both sides, collaborating to write, record and
release
it during the break-up (including a recognizable representation of the
5 stages
of loss) of not only a close, personal, intimate relationship/marriage,
but
also the essence of the band that was its foundation, makes The Nevers
a
profound statement that leaves as many questions as the answers it
reveals.
Meredith
DiMenna
and Keith
“Touch” Saunders passion for each
other as well as the band has been on display in 4 prior releases (as
well as their
pre-St. B release Eternal Intermission
[’03] as The
Saucers). Starting with In The Ballroom,
named the “2007
IndepenDisc of the
Year” by this reviewer, continuing
on with the “I
Wanna Tell You Something”
(’08) and “Word To The Lourdes”
(’09)
EPs, and evolving with “Cover
Thy Neighbor”
(’09), when the DiMenna/Saunders
songwriting team focused on and collaborated to cover 12 obscure
independent
songs by mutual favorite local bands, their songwriting skills have
always
possessed and displayed their all-encompassing love and their
dedication to
both the music and each other.
They’ve
been lusty, smoky, down and dirty, purveyors of
torch, blues, big band and jazz, and emissaries of rock, both hard and
soft. With
sounds ranging from what one might find in the underground clubs and
lounges,
up to the theaters and the arenas, Saint
Bernadette’s musical
passion has always
been from the heart. Keith’s bursting forth through his
multi-talented guitar
and Meredith’s with her powerful, sultry vocals to form a
sound that embodies
the pure emotions that drive the art of their creation.
So is this the end
of Saint Bernadette?
No, Keith and
Meredith’s love shall be carried forth by Meredith and the
other band members
with Keith’s blessing. But so as to acknowledge no regrets to
any and all
horizons of love, they give them selves to us unconditionally with the
best art
their love has ever created.
Saint
Bernadette’s The Nevers is Rock-n-Roll.
It’s
the break-up song, the Divorce album.
It is fractured relationships
and doomed passion, it’s the beauty of love for the beauty it
is, it’s the
hurt, pain and glory to have loved as best you can...
and it makes for the
ultimate emotional music experience.
Saint Bernadette - The Nevers
is available now for: $10.98 +s/h*
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