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Put your hands on the remote! browse music »Stephen and the Talk Talk Band by Stephen Cohen
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fave it Ambient | Modern Folk
13 tracks | 36 minutes
Released Aug 2005
on Stephen Cohen
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- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:44 It's My Story lyrics FREE 02:44 It's My Story lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:44 It's My Story
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:45 Talk To Me lyrics BUY MP3 01:45 Talk To Me lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:45 Talk To Me
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:26 Sliding lyrics BUY MP3 03:26 Sliding lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:26 Sliding
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:52 A Few Passing Minutes lyrics BUY MP3 03:52 A Few Passing Minutes lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:52 A Few Passing Minutes
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:19 Mr. Talk Talk lyrics BUY MP3 02:19 Mr. Talk Talk lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:19 Mr. Talk Talk
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:10 Your Career lyrics BUY MP3 01:10 Your Career lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:10 Your Career
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:46 After The War lyrics BUY MP3 01:46 After The War lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:46 After The War
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:30 One Child Walking lyrics BUY MP3 03:30 One Child Walking lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:30 One Child Walking
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:03 Katie Grace lyrics BUY MP3 03:03 Katie Grace lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:03 Katie Grace
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:53 We Want to Walk in the House of Love lyrics BUY MP3 03:53 We Want to Walk in the House of Love lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:53 We Want to Walk in the House of Love
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:03 Walking Inside lyrics BUY MP3 03:03 Walking Inside lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:03 Walking Inside
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:21 Excuse Me, President lyrics BUY MP3 02:21 Excuse Me, President lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:21 Excuse Me, President
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:29 The Dusty Old Freight Train lyrics BUY MP3 03:29 The Dusty Old Freight Train lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:29 The Dusty Old Freight Train
creative accoustic music using guitar,voice, sculptural percussion instruments, lap steel guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, accordion and jazz drums
Bio / Background
Technically speaking, "Outsider Art" is art produced by the unschooled and or insane. Technically speaking, Stephen Cohen is neither. The apparently sane Portland-based performing artist, composer, visual artist and songwriter uses acoustic guitar, voice, original sculptural percussion instruments made from metals, woods, recycled and found materials to create records of quiet beauty. Cohen officially studied trombone and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Art from the University of Oregon. Still, the formal definition of Outsider Art is often stretched to include such as Stephen, and there is no doubt that his music shares many of the intriguing traits of the genre: a child-like aura, a hand-made quality, and unfiltered directness.
"It's My Story" begins with a spoken voice introducing a, well, story, over a haunting acoustic guitar figure. Cohen's own voice comes in over the storyteller's, singing, "It's my story, it's my story, you can take it, please don't leave it.
↓ more ↓" Mandolin, bouzouki, drums, and lap steel are added; different voices enter telling fragments of other stories with Stephen singing the refrain over them. The total effect is one of the most emotionally affecting recordings I have experienced in a long time. Cohen's singing voice recalls Randy Newman and John Martyn without sounding quite like either. His guitar playing channels the simpler elements of Ry Cooder and Cooder-influences Lightnin' Hopkins and Joseph Spence. Taken together in a tune like "It's My Story," it adds up to a definitive depiction of the desperate human need to communicate. It is art devoid of pretension.
More sound sculptures than songs, the tunes on this CD share qualities with Cohen's actual sculptures of percussion instruments and guitars, to wit: warmth, whimsy, and an unexpected depth. A narrator talks about surviving a slide down a mountain in an avalanche and it evolves into--what else--a slide guitar piece. Other pieces revolve around talk, war, politics, love, and children. Stephen has done weekly music groups with severely disturbed children, and the combination of love, patience, and deep caring that must be required for such an undertaking infuses his music.
We live in an age where everyone can make a CD, and nearly everyone does. Just when I despair about the landfill this produces, I discover a CD like Stephen & The Talk Talk Band. This work likely wouldn't have been produced in an era of record company gatekeepers. And in the pre-internet/website days, I probably wouldn't have found it even if it had appeared somewhere on vinyl. I have done my best to describe it but you need to experience it. You will either "get it" or you won't. If you do, you will be the richer for it.
-Michael Ross, Puremusic.com (from http://www.puremusic.com/60cohen.html )
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