Edentown
by Mary Ann Rossoni
Release Concert at:
Stone Soup Coffeehouse
February 22, 2014, 8 pm
Better All the Time
Mary Ann Rossoni is back.
This time with the benefit of experience.
It’s always a treat when our beloved acoustic music icon Mary Ann Rossoni returns with a collection of songs. Edentown, her newest and eighth work shows us an artist that has come full circle, from acoustic music and back again. Only this time, Mary Ann’s songwriting shows the benefit of passing time, of experience, of wisdom, of age.The new album is Rossoni laid bare: a collection of songs shorn of any elaborate arrangement or instrumentation—just words, delicately strummed guitars, and her voice.
Best known for composing melodic ballads focused on the challenges, perils and accomplishments of working class heroes, Mary Ann follows that formula, and her strength, with Edentown. The songs here reflect a pensive depth, her songs address the darkness and difficulties that so often afflict her heavy hearted narrators, all of us. Many of the tunes on Edentown talk of loss, recovery and sacrifice. “After the deaths of my nephew and a close friend, my writing took a ‘why-are-we-here?’ turn,” she says. “The songs on Edentown speak of loss and recovery, young love and gratitude for the simple things that life has to offer.”
“Beside My Memory of You” is a haunting waltz for a friend that passed suddenly. “The Passion” sings beautifully of the ultimate sacrifice. Years of disagreement end in understanding in “More and More the Same.” The title cut is a missive from a friend on the other side.
Writing and recording since 1988, when she met and performed extensively with singer/songwriter John Fuzek, Mary Ann in a sense returns to those simpler days, only this time with more complex feelings, more mature reflections, and a more truly meaningful body of work.
Rossoni will be performing these newer songs at Stone Soup Coffeehouse on February 22 with longtime band mate Paul Dube (harp/accordion); his son Matt Dube (percussion) and fellow board members of the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame Medrick Bellaire (mando/acoustic guitar) and Jeff Keithline (stand-up bass).
Mike Laureanno, longtime friend, fellow RISA member, and the recording engineer behind Edentown, opens the show.
“I’ve really missed playing small folk rooms, getting out there in front of people and feeling that connection,” she admits. “That’s why I feel it’s good to take these songs on the road.”
