In The Sun
(Awesome Vistas - AV10) LP $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Phil Franklin nailed it when he referred to Christine Shields's first solo LP as “ten songs of dark and light.” The album is very much about opposites, the sun and moon, descent into darkness and return to light. Instrumentation includes guitar, banjo, baritone uke, and voice, with percussion by William Winant, guitar by Joe Goldring (Enablers, Touched by a Janitor, Swans), soundscapes by Sheila Bosco (Faun Fables, Autobody), and drums and production by Tim Mooney (American Music Club). Her musical pedigree includes Archipelago Brewing Company, Grouse Mountain Skyride, Shady Creek Girls, and Steeple Chase, but she's perhaps best known for her portraits of musicians, short-lived comic book Blue Hole, and dark, humorous, Addams-meets-Gorey illustration work for countless small-press publications and zines (e.g. the cover of Bananafish #15). Her music, like her images, is dreamy, dark, melodic, harmonious, and high-lonesome. (That old-time influence has its hooks in her good.) If you want to make her day, compare her to Opal. You wouldn’t be far off the mark. Silkscreened jackets.