CD Review: Artist name

CD Review

With a recording career that has spanned thirty years and twelve albums, Jack Hardy is one of the few songwriters who continues to get better. What marks Hardy's work are his traditionally-based melodies, and his ability to draw on ancient Celtic symbolism while handling contemporary themes.

That said, Omens opens with a song that is fairly uncharacteristic for him - a devastating political song called "I Oughta Know." The song satirizes the American Everyman, someone who is patriotic and morally certain but knows nothing about the history of the country or any of our most relevant political issues - labor, environment, civil rights:

I oughta know what the drinking gourd means
I oughta know more than I have a dream
I oughta know about the back of the bus,
and the crack of billy clubs
This I oughta know
But I don't

In the chorus, Everyman boasts "I don't know nothing about nothing." he couldn't be more proud.

After this, Hardy settles down into his customary style - lilting, often achingly beautiful love songs that use ancient imagery to help create a spiritual and historical dimension to the aspirations and griefs of the heart. Jack has been the focal point of an active songwriter scene in NYC for over 20 years and this album demonstrates what continues to draw other writers to his circle. One is the quality of his craft:

I can't love you - if you won't let me
If you find reasons - to send me away
I can't love you - like heaven sent me
To fix the seasons - and make them stay

In this opening of the second song, notice the closeness in the rhyme of let me/sent me, the internal rhyme and alliteration of find reasons / fix seasons, the opposition of away and stay. His imagery brings the natural world to life and makes it an integral part of his lovers' inner lives:

And the blackberry still has its thorns
And the blackberry still leaves its stains
A dress damp and torn on the forest floor
When nary a trace still remains
And the blackberry may have no memory of you
But I do....

Or the poet can understand love by other ancient lore:

In the building of the boat, perhaps a nail was bent
In the crossbeam set afloat and by this an omen meant
In the naming of the trees, perhaps this one too young
Made it weaken in the knees and made it come undone

One thing that separates these songs from your average love song is their acceptance that love can be tragic, and that deep passions always are. By definition, the obsessed lover (of a person, of an art) must sacrifice everything else. And because we are imperfect and because most of us cannot remain true to one thing, there is always the ghost or menace of betrayal. If this seems harsh, at least he lays the blame impartially. It seems that half of Hardy's songs are accusations, half confessions. This cuts against the grain of popsong fantasies about the perfect love - a life of happiness and intensely pleasurable passion. Or if they are songs about betrayal they are predicated on the certainty that a better love exists in the future, or the pathetic idea that at least it exists for others. That's just candy and it rots the spirit.

Another thing that separates Jack's music from the rest is that for the last several years he has recorded them live in the studio, with all the musicians playing acoustic instruments and singing together. Even with complex arrangements that include electric guitar, light drums, bass, violin and harmony vocals, the musicians are performing together, in the same room. The liner notes say "Unproduced by Jack Hardy and David Seitz" and this sonic honesty has become one of his iconoclastic trademarks.

Finally, there's the voice. To highlight the beauty of his songs - which comes from the purity of poetry, melody and performance - and to keep them from becoming merely pretty, Hardy has for years affected an old man's gravelly voice, using sibilant S's that recall the sly snake and gutteral H's that recall the Gaelic tongue. Only now, these are no longer affectations. The passions of Hardy's songs are not the histrionic emotions of youth; they are the knowledge and discipline of age - of the ages. We humans are small in their grasp and heroic only by remaining steadfast in despising stupidity and loving in spite of everything.

When it comes to choosing the music you listen to and the artistic integrity with which it's made, I can't think of any reason to settle for less. -HB

For a discussion of Hardy's other albums and his extensive influence on contemporary folk music, see my previous article.