In the 1980s, Merrie Amsterburg connected with the ex-Burlington band, Little Sister. The resulting new outfit was called The Natives. Through a career fronting a rock band and then soloing as a modern singer-songwriter, Amsterburg has made great music of her own, while serving as an in-demand supporting musician for other artists. She has been a steady presence in diverse Vermont venues. But Clementine and Other Stories may surprise even fans here who well know her past work. Clementine is one of the best and prettiest albums of U.S. traditional song since those hazy days in the 1950s when the Kingston Trio’s hits charged up the folk community and ushered in a lot of younger musicians. Amsterburg’s arrangements are thoughtful, the playing is skilled, and this disc is the best yet at capturing her lovely soprano voice. These things and more combine to make Clementine a gorgeous, essential listening experience.

The Independent on Sunday
Merrie Amsterburg, Clementine and other Stories

Eleven over-familiar songs from the folk tradition, performed with spooky delicacy by a Bostonian singer-songwriter with her hair in a bun. She treats the mall, from "Lakes of Pontchartrain" and "Shenandoah" to "Streets of Laredo" and "Down in the Valley", as stories with a special scope for re-telling, given their devolved status as cliche (shades of our own Jim Moray's Sweet England). And it works prettywell. The arrangements are always subtle, quiet, sometimes haunting, and if her voice lacks real substance and grip, then a side-benefit is that you listen to the song, not the singer. Worth investigating.

Green Man Review
Merrie Amsterburg: Clementine and Other Stories
By Scott Gianelli

Merrie Amsterburg first came to my attention in 2000, with her fine sophomore effort Little Steps. Then she more or less vanished for six years, re-emerging only recently with Clementine and Other Stories, a collection of traditional American and Irish standards. It's hard not to think that Amsterburg has been dealing with writer's block, but thankfully her voice remains as strong as before, and her ability to put a good record together has only improved in the intervening years.

Most of Clementine and Other Stories consists of songs that Americans all know at least a verse or the chorus to -- "Down in the Valley" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," for example -- even if they can't identify where exactly they heard them. Amsterburg takes liberty with the arrangements, personalizing the songs with some harmony here, a few subtle chord changes there, and some instrumental breaks inserted in for good measure. The album sounds and feels much like Little Steps does, so any long-time fans of Amsterburg will relish the new music simply for that. However, she breathes so much life into material that had otherwise appeared hokey or hackneyed, that one listen to the album makes it obvious why these songs had permanently lodged themselves into the collective American subconscious in the first place. "Wayfaring Stranger" broods and simmers, providing an interesting contrast with a very different but equally good cover of the same song by Neko Case on her CD The Tigers Have Spoken. The gorgeously sparse "Shenandoah" puts the listener in a vast expanse along the wide Missouri in a way my high school glee club could only dream about, if creating the right mood to do the song justice ever even occurred to us. "Lakes of Ponchartrain" gets a surprisingly rocking but still very effective treatment from Amsterburg and her band.

As the album's title implies, though, the focal point of this CD is "Clementine." If you aren't already singing the chorus to this sad lament of a California miner who couldn't swim to his drowning love's rescue, you will be when you hear this. Amsterburg reaches back into the crevasses of our nation's history, and finds all the emotion and power that the song's original writer and singer meant to be there. The result is a song that once again is timeless.

Despite her lack of new material for six years and counting, Merrie Amsterburg has easily regained her position among the top performers in the folk-rock genre. Anybody wondering why some of America's most popular folk songs achieved their status will have a much greater understanding after hearing Clementine and Other Stories.

Americana-UK.com
Merrie Amsterburg: Clementine and Other Stories - "Big In Boston"
By Phil Edwards, 9/08/06

Merrie Amsterburg has won numerous awards including two Boston music, one Boston Phoenix for best music poll and the Jam magazine artist of the year. She’s also been listed in the top ten album choices of various Boston papers for her previous two albums. So big in Boston then.

Having toured with Aimee Mann, Patty Larkin and Paula Cole she’s slowly been earning her stripes.

Her music has been described as folk, pop and contemporary. I think it's all three plus something else. Contemporary folky pop plus, if you like.

‘Clementine and Other Stories’ are her interpretation of historical traditional American folk songs done her way. You’ll know all the songs here ‘(Oh my darling) Clementine’ (obviously), ‘Shenandoah’, ‘When Johnny Come Marching Home’, ‘Down in the Valley’, ‘All the Pretty Horses’ and ‘Lakes of Pontchartrain’ are amongst the 11 covers.

Her versions of the stories about soldiers, slaves, immigrants, natives and labourers are far removed from the “originals” – if such things exist.

Her style is laid back and reflective. Her voice is ideally suited to these types of songs and she performs them all admirably. She wondered “what voice the song had, and what voice I could bring to the songs” wanting to get people to look at the familiar in a different way. I think she’s succeeded. I didn’t rate previous versions of ‘Clementine’ before. I do now.

Ranging from solo performances to full band versions this album works.

7 out of 10

The Graham Weekly Album Review #1441
Merrie Amsterburg: Clementine and Other Stories
by George Graham

(Q Division 1033 As broadcast on WVIA-FM 4/26/2006)

Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before the term singer-songwriter came into the lexicon, there was a boom in the popularity of folk music. The term then meant songs that were handed down from one generation to the next, usually written by some anonymous composer. And a folk music performer doing his or her own music was considered something close to a sacrilege. Of course, Bob Dylan came along in the mid 1960s, after one album of traditional songs, he began to perform his own music, and the rest, as they say, is history. So by the 1970s, relying on old traditional songs and not performing one's own music, very much went out of fashion.

In recent years, though, perhaps due in part to the rising popularity of bluegrass, a new generation of performers have begun to re-examine the old songs that used to be sung at the hootenannies in the days of the Great Folk Music Scare. Some singer-songwriters have included a traditional song or two on their records, and over the past couple of years, there have been a number of CDs consisting of all traditional folk songs. Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs did one, as did a group called Ollabelle, and there was the fascinating remix album of Alan Lomax's 1950s era field recordings done by the group Tangle Eye. The latest, and one of the most compelling, is by Boston area singer-songwriter Merrie Amsterburg. It bears the title Clementine and Other Stories.

Merrie Amsterburg is a Michigan native, and from 1988 to 1994 was the front person for the rock band the Natives, which attracted a fair amount of attention. By the mid 1990s, she began recording on her own, though quite infrequently. Her debut CD came out 10 years ago, and Clementine is only her third full CD release.

Ms. Amsterburg is known for her subtle, sometimes poignant lyrics, and often haunting musical compositions, along with her very distinctive and wonderfully appealing vocals, and the interesting collection of instruments she plays from baritone guitar to bouzouki. Each of her previous CDs was marked by great depth and indeed delicacy, even when she went electric. They were the kind of CDs that would grow on one with each hearing.

Now, fully six years after her superb release Little Steps she is out with Clementine and Other Stories. The CD came about when Ms. Amsterburg decided to include the old song (My Darling) Clementine in some of her performances. She said she started getting requests for the song, and then thought it would be interesting to do a whole album of traditional songs. She also thought it would be fairly easy. But as she got into it, she found herself taking a long time to decide how she wanted to present the songs. She spoke of trying to determine, in her words, "what voice the song had, and what voice I could bring to the songs." She set as her goal trying to get people to look at the familiar old songs in a different way because, she says, "they are part of history and where we come from." The result is both fascinating and often compelling, with some songs that we learned in as young children or around the campfire, given a musical setting that reflects the often sad or tragic lyrics which are usually covered by the happy melodies.

Ms. Amsterburg recorded mainly in her home studio, often with the help of her husband and long time musical partner Peter Linton. She plays quite a few instruments, including a variety of stringed instruments, plus keyboards, drum loops, and even trumpet, which she learned and played in grade school. The arrangements range from solo performances to some tracks with essentially a full rock band backing, with the help of bassist Paul Bryan and drummer John Sands, who have worked with Ms. Amsterburg on her two previous albums. The songs she performs with perhaps one exception, and all very familiar to anyone who has had exposure to traditional music, including Streets of Laredo, Shenandoah, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, and Simple Gifts.

Leading off is Down in the Valley, which sets the direction of the album. The old song of unrequited love is given a atmospheric, melancholy treatment. Ms. Amsterburg plays her bouzouki, while the band plays with darker musical colors.

One of the more unexpected musical treatments is given to the song Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair. This song which probably came from the British Isles, is given a vaguely Latin beat, while Ms. Amsterburg's vocal performance captures the mood of the lyrics.

The title track Clementine, is one of those old folk songs the everybody knows, and yet few really pay attention to how sad the words actually are. Ms. Amsterburg and her band give the song one of the most electric arrangements on the album, but she does it in part in a minor key, which puts a different spin on it, and causes us to re-examine the downright tragic lyrics.

Ms. Amsterburg includes a lullaby among the traditional songs on the CD. All The Pretty Horses, is transformed into a melancholy waltz with all the instruments played my Ms. Amsterburg, including the seemingly incongruous banjo.

Also very original is her treatment of the old Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts. She adds a bit of subtle electronica in perhaps the most upbeat arrangement on the CD. It's one of the album's many pleasant surprises.

Ms. Amsterburg performs another old folk music standard Streets of Laredo in a solo setting. It's another tragic set of lyrics, and Ms. Amsterburg's performance is remarkable for its subtle poignancy.

For me about the only track that does not surprise and delight as much, is her treatment of The Lakes of Ponchartrain. Though nicely done, with Ms. Amsterburg getting out her trumpet, it seems to lack the sonic impact of some of the other pieces.

The CD ends with a dark brooding version of When Johnny Comes Marching Home. I've heard this piece done as both a sad song -- it is after all written in a minor key -- and a more joyous version. Ms. Amsterburg's wonderfully melancholy vocals are at their best in this arrangement whose atmospheric quality is literal, with the sound of wind in the background.

More singer-songwriters are rediscovering the old traditional folk songs. They serve as a reminder, sometimes a humbling one to a songwriter, of the qualities of songs that allow them to last for hundreds of years. Merrie Amsterburg is the latest talented composer-vocalist to take up the traditional folk songs on her new album, Clementine and Other Stories, and it's one of the best yet. Ms. Amsterburg is a gifted performer with a wonderful voice, and an eclectic multi-instrumentalist -- she once used the sound of a washing machine to accompany a song. Her highly creative reworkings of these old songs most people think they know can cast a completely new light on them, and the subtle performances, both instrumentally and vocally, turn this into a compelling and memorable album.

Our sonic grade is close to an "A." The mix, the quality of the instrumentation, and Ms. Amsterburg's vocals are all well-handled, and the dynamic range is reasonably adequate.

Merrie Amsterburg is an outstanding songwriter in her own right, and about the only disappointing thing about this CD is that there are no new Amsterburg compositions. But her downright fascinating reinventions of these old folksongs helps to make up for that, and I hope that it is not too much longer before she puts out another, long-overdue album of new original music.

(c) Copyright 2006 George D. Graham. All rights reseved.

The Cape Cod Times
A trip into folk music's past
By Ken Capobianco, Contributing Writer

There are so many traditional songs in Americans' collective unconscious - songs we either learned as children or absorbed as we have grown older. Frequently, we can recall a lyric or a melody just by the mention of a song title and we're not quite sure what the song is about or its derivation. They are part of our pop culture that has seeped into our veins.

Boston-based singer-songwriter Merrie Amsterburg found herself singing a few of these, like ''Clementine'' (''Oh my darling, oh, my darling Clementine, you are lost. ...''). She started to sit down and think about them and actually find the heart (in many cases, the very dark heart) of the songs.

After working through the meanings and implications of numerous traditional songs, she decided to put together a collection and record them. Titled ''Clementine & Other Stories'' (Q Division), the set was just released, and it's a lovely, lyrical work featuring Amsterburg's determined, stoic and clear eyed vocals augmented by a spare musical ensemble, which effectively gives the songs just enough colors and never calls attention to itself or takes the focus away from the song. The multi-talented Amsterburg also contributes banjo, guitars, organ and piano, as well as bouzouki. It makes for an often intense record in which the singer makes many of these seemingly universal songs deeply personal and haunting. Among the songs Amsterburg has focused on are ''Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,'' ''Down In The Valley'' and ''Shenandoah.''

''There were so many that I could have done, but I pared them down to

the ones that I was most intrigued by,'' says Amsterburg from her home in the Boston area. ''I was taken by the stories and how sad some of them are.''

She says the project developed out of her off-and-on appearances at Johnny D's in Somerville, where she was invited to do some traditional American music with other performers. ''I just found myself getting more deeply involved with them and I decided to take a harder look at them.''

The amiable singer-songwriter pauses and lets her mind wander a bit. ''You know what's funny is that we have these songs in our brains, but we never really look at what could have inspired them. I believe there are lyrics we recite over and over again even if we have no idea what the mean.''

Like in ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' where he sticks a feather in his cap and calls it macaroni?

She laughs and adds, ''That's just one of the songs we have blindly absorbed but take a song like 'Clementine,' which is often sung as little happy ditty, especially when we are growing up but it is about profound loss. A child would have a difficult time completely understanding the intensity.''

The project took three years for Amsterburg to complete as she collected songs from others' suggestions, researched through books (including Alan Lomax's ''American Ballads and Folk Songs'') and tracked down all lyrical derivations on the Internet.

''I had to find out the historical context of each song and look at the motivations of each narrator.'' Call it Method singing.

She explains her approach and the choices she made by talking about the slave ballad ''All The Pretty Horses.''

''It's a beautiful song but there was one verse I just couldn't sing,'' she says with a sigh. ''The slave describes a black child getting his eyes pecked out by birds and laments that she couldn't take care of her child because she was tending to a white baby. Just heartbreaking.''

She adds that the arrangements, some of which hew closely to the traditional treatments, took an equally long time as she continued to experiment with different ways to deliver the songs.

''You obviously can't do anything radical,'' she says. ''But you want to put your own imprint on them while obviously honoring the original intent and integrity.''

Amsterburg has been a staple on the Boston pop music scene for over a decade now. She put out her first solo record, ''Season of Rain,'' in 1996 and has developed a loyal following, which has grown into a national audience.

The indie singer-songwriter knows that there isn't much hope for a record like this in today's intense commercial marketplace but she isn't worried. ''These were songs I had to record and work through for my own sake and I certainly hope it inspires people to go back and learn more about the songs.''

She also is aware that there just happens to be a guy named Bruce Springsteen who made a strikingly similar record with ''We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.'' In fact, ''Shenandoah'' appears on both. To hear the versions juxtaposed gives you a great idea how two very dissimilar artists can interpret the same material and make it live and breathe in different ways.

''I can see why this music would spur his interest,'' she says. ''Let's face it, if the millions who hear Springsteen's record are inspired by it, then I would hope they might search out further variations and they might stumble upon my record'' (If you liked ''The Seeger Sessions,'' you might. ...).

Although she has put the making of the record in the rearview mirror (she will be performing the songs in her concerts), Amsterburg says that the work has informed her own writing. ''It's tough to switch gears sometimes but I've learned a lot about narration and how to shape a song better,'' she says.

''This has been a great learning experience for me and I hope it's a great listening experience for others. There's tremendous power and beauty in these songs.''

(Published: May 8, 2006)
 

The Armchair Critic
Merrie Amsterburg: Clementine and Other Stories

Merrie Amsterburg first came to my attention in 2000, with her fine sophomore effort Little Steps. Then she more or less vanished for six years, re-emerging only recently with Clementine and Other Stories, a collection of traditional American and Irish standards. It's hard not to think that Amsterburg has been dealing with writer's block, but thankfully her voice remains as strong as before, and her ability to put a good record together has only improved in the intervening years.

Most of Clementine and Other Stories consists of songs that Americans all know at least a verse or the chorus to -- "Down in the Valley" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," for example -- even if they can't identify where exactly they heard them. Amsterburg takes liberty with the arrangements, personalizing the songs with some harmony here, a few subtle chord changes there, and some instrumental breaks inserted in for good measure. The album sounds and feels much like Little Steps does, so any long-time fans of Amsterburg will relish the new music simply for that. However, she breathes so much life into material that had otherwise appeared hokey or hackneyed, that one listen to the album makes it obvious why these songs had permanently lodged themselves into the collective American subconscious in the first place. "Wayfaring Stranger" broods and simmers, providing an interesting contrast with a very different but equally good cover of the same song by Neko Case on her CD The Tigers Have Spoken. The gorgeously sparse "Shenandoah" puts the listener in a vast expanse along the wide Missouri in a way my high school glee club could only dream about, if creating the right mood to do the song justice ever even occurred to us. "Lakes of Ponchartrain," popularized by the Irish band Planxty, gets a surprisingly rocking but still very effective treatment from Amsterburg and her band.

As the album's title implies, though, the focal point of this CD is "Clementine." If you aren't already singing the chorus to this sad lament of a California miner who couldn't swim to his drowning love's rescue, you will when you hear this. Amsterburg reaches back into the crevasses of our nation's history, and finds all the emotion and power that the song's original writer and singer meant to be there. The result is a song that once again is timeless.

Despite the lack of new material for six years and counting, Merrie Amsterburg has easily regained her position among the top performers in the folk-rock genre. Anybody wondering why some of America's most popular folk songs achieved their status will have a much greater understanding after hearing Clementine and Other Stories.

Overall grade: A-