LITTLE BLACK DRESS & OTHER STORIES – REVIEW
Pasadena Weekly - reviewed by Bliss
The local singer-songwriter’s choice, long-awaited solo debut is laden with
hooks and smartly detailed character studies refracted through a dispassionate
cool reminiscent of Aimee Mann. Opening with the gorgeous “’Twas Her Hunger
Brought Me Down,” inspired by Theodore Dreiser’s novel “Sister Carrie,” Celsi
casually cracks wise, nails self-centered lovers and celebrates her independence
in sometimes jazzy, frequently upbeat pop-rock settings. Worth seeking out.
Highland Park's Anny Celsi chosen for compilation alongside Springsteen,
Aimee Mann and Suzanne Vega
by Bliss, Pasadena Weekly
Former Annyland frontwoman Anny Celsi has a knack for selecting
telling symbols — a man’s shirt sleeve, silver timepieces, a woman’s
proverbial little black dress — that illuminate the interior lives
of characters inhabiting her songs. The characters themselves are
often inspired by other writers, particularly novelists. So when
fellow singer-songwriter Claudia Russell tipped her off about a
contest soliciting songs inspired by books, Celsi was poised for
action — and as a result landed on a compilation alongside Bruce
Springsteen, Aimee Mann and Suzanne Vega.
The album, “Chapter One,” is the first annual fundraising CD
produced by Songs Inspired By Literature, or SIBL, a Northern
California-based nonprofit devoted to helping illiterate adults.
Celsi was one of 10 finalists selected for inclusion on the disc,
which has already been profiled on NPR and is available in
independent book and record stores. Their submissions are augmented
by previously released tracks from a celeb contingent comprised of
Springsteen, Mann, Vega, Jefferson Airplane vocalist Grace Slick and
former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek.
Inspired by Theodore Dreiser’s tragic classic “Sister Carrie,”
Celsi’s submission “Twas Her Hunger Brought Me Down” (“No it ain’t
the fall that kills you, it’s your meeting with the ground/ If it’s
beauty that compels you, then it’s hunger brings you down”) was
striking enough that singer Grey DeLisle was moved to record it with
hubby Murry Hammond, of the Old 97’s, for her newest CD,
“Homewrecker.” Like much of Celsi’s original material, it matches
smart, insightful lyrics with a hugely singable melody.
“If you just write about yourself all the time,” Celsi laughs,
“that’s good for one CD, maybe, unless you’re Tolstoy. You have to
get ideas from somewhere. For me it’s mostly wanting to hold onto
something that I’ve read or something that somebody had said ... A
song is something that you can hold onto; it stays in your mind and
you can sing it.”
“Hunger” is also heard on Celsi’s forthcoming solo album “Little
Black Dress & Other Stories,” co-produced with drummer Kevin Jarvis.
Two years (at least) in the making, it includes contributions from a
versatile circle of players: Jarvis, Lucinda Williams organist Phil
Parlapiano, Syrups bassist Adam Pike, guitarist/banjoist Randy
Weeks, and Toad the Wet Sprocket producer Marvin Etzioni, who
produced “Wicked Little Heart” and the chugging title track. If
Celsi’s uptempo work with Annyland earned a host of comparisons to
Chrissie Hynde, “Little Black Dress” places her closer to Aimee
Mann’s coolly dispassionate turf. On songs like “Day After Tomorrow”
(“I can set my watch by your comin’ and your goin’/ After all this
time I never fail to keep my window open”) and “It Hurts/ My Heart/
To Hear/ Your Voice,” Celsi uses seemingly mundane objects to
dissect relationship politics with sometimes acidic precision.
Improbably, the title track was picked up pre-release for radioplay
last summer by the nationally syndicated “Best of Country” show.
“I’ll go to whatever party they invite me to!” laughs the
far-from-twangy Celsi, who first made a splash on L.A.’s competitive
scene as a founding member of ’80s pop-rock outfit the Tearjerkers.
“They were playing it pretty much daily for all of last summer. I
thought that was great at the time because I thought the record was
gonna be done really soon — always, my timing is off. Finally, a
year later, the record is coming out.”
Recording was complicated by the Highland Park resident’s daytime
responsibilities (she juggles two jobs and shares custody with her
ex of their son) as well as Jarvis’ tour schedule with John Wesley
Harding and Grant Lee Phillips. But the delay, largely a result of
Celsi’s post-divorce dramas — relocation, vehicular breakdowns,
financial hell — translated into more substantive music.
“Your ideal is that you want to book two weeks in the studio and
just go in and bash it out, sort of capture that moment,” Celsi
says. “The reality is you work on three songs in six months, you
work on three more, then you go back. ... If it had been done a year
ago, when I wanted it to be done, it wouldn’t have been as good a
record.”
Halfway through, she “came into the concept” of treating the new
songs like a series of short stories, each with a clear beginning,
middle and end presented by characters with identifiable
perspectives. If she doubts her clarity, an in-house critic keeps
her humble: her son, who’s toured with her and plays on at least one
of the album’s tracks.
“He’s like, ‘Mom, I don’t like the way you ended that song, you
should’ve gone to this other chord.’ And he’s only 9! [Laughs] So
I’m looking forward to more of that. He plays piano and keyboards
and I was kind of hoping for a bass player ’cause they’re just so
hard to find but [laughs], I think I’ll have to have another kid for
that. ...
“The other day I woke up at 6 a.m. in a panic because I realized my
son’s school was having a Renaissance Fair the next day and he
didn’t have a costume. I had to drive him to school at 8 and start
work. So I got up and I made him a costume — before breakfast!
[Laughs] I drink a lot of coffee. [Life’s] just a lot of scheduling.
“I hope if I can come up with a sustainable songwriting career that
things will ease up a bit, but for now that’s what it is. I think
I’m on the right track — I feel like I am. [Laughs] We’ll see.”
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