|
TEEN SCENE A Teenager’s Perspective Of The Arts & Entertainment |
|
|
|
With Sarah Lounges
A
Night in the Mansion... On Tuesday, April 16th my boyfriend escorted me into a beautiful turn-of-the-century mansion. The kind of wonderful and stately old homes you see in those old gothic romance movies.
No, I was not dreaming.
I really was there, sipping from a crystal glass as tuxedo wearing
waiters with silver trays implored us to sample delicious hors d’oeuvres.
The occasion was a special invitation only cocktail party for Hollywood
Records’ latest superstar in waiting –– Sheila
Nicholls –– at the Francis J. Dewes Mansion in Chicago.
And when I say “superstar,” I’m not tossing out the term casually.
Nicholls is a deep, emotive young artist the world is sure to sit up and
take notice of...ahhh, but I digress. Let
me finish painting the picture of my lofty night in the city. As we entered the mansion, we found the flickering flames from a sea of candles to be inviting and the tiny tables were strewn with fresh flower petals. This, combined with the beautiful hand-carved woodwork, ceiling murals and quaintness of the Victorian-era building was visually intoxicating and set the stage perfectly for the acoustic set Nicholls was to perform on a magnificent Baby Grand. And did I mention the tasty hors d’oeuvres... fillet mignon wrapped in spinach leaves and drizzled with white sauce, shrimp with herbs, a fabulous mushroom in a biscuit thingy, a seasoned crab cake morsel and much more. My taste buds were dancing... Okay, okay... on to the music. With little fanfare, Nicholls took her place on the squeaky piano bench and was joined by two acoustic guitarists, a stand up bass and a cellist, where they proceeded to play stripped down versions of songs from her latest Hollywood release, Wake, which hits stores this month. Now just because this column generally deals with teen issues, teen culture and teen celebs... let me clearly state that Sheila Nicholls should not necessarily be considered as a teen-oriented artist. Though young and hip and totally relatable to teens, Nicholls has the kind of musical substance and style that will make her as appealing to old folks (you know…those in their 20s!). Her colorful dreadlocked hair is woven with bells and totally rules – but she won’t be touring with Backstreet or Britney anytime soon. Her music is pretty deep and forgoes pandering to Hello Kitty types in favor of the more sophisticated and mature coffee house crowd. In short, the lady’s got things to say! Though my dad tried to draw lines between her music and Ani Difranco, Jewel and Alanis, I feel Nicholls defies such simple, swift comparisons and efforts to pigeon-hole. To her credit, I can not describe Nicholls’ sound through comparisons to others. With most artists today, it is fairly easy to do, but Sheila’s voice and words resonate clearly as her own. Wake, though her major label debut, is actually her sophomore release and it’s absolutely terrific! The music is great, but for me personally, what hits hardest are her lyrics –– which are political, poetic, and just so deep and meaningful, it is wonderful. The new album’s first
single,“Faith,” has an up-beat
tempo and is uplifting in tone and spirit, at least from my perspective.
I think it is a great song. I also love her songs “How
Strong” and “Bread and Water.” One song (“Elevator” ) from Nicholls’ first CD, Brief Stop, was on a 4-song sampler CD I got at the party. It too is pretty deep, albeit a little depressing, but I find it extremely moving and thought provoking, making me want to seek out that hard to find first effort. Along with her own
compositions and a couple of collaborative efforts with producer Russ Ballard,
Wake, also finds Sheila covering Leslie Duncan’s “Love
Song,” originally recorded by Elton John for his Tumbleweed Connection
album. That’s the song she concluded with before mingling with the crowd of
music industry players. Among those in attendance at this event was Norm Winer, the top music guy at Chicago’s WXRT 93-FM. Mr. Winer seemed to enjoy Nicholls’ music as much as I did, so I hope he will follow his heart and add her songs to their play list so this talented artist can be heard here. Nicholls was born in Essex, England (Essex is also in the name of her own record label, Essex Girl Records). From there she moved to L.A and then New York. While in L.A Sheila began a performance series called “Chicks In Arms,” which was intended to promote women artists. “Men are welcome to perform,” she explained, “so long as they proudly wear a skirt.” I would like to leave you
with a quote from Sheila which I absolutely love: “The ‘One Love’ message, professed by the great scholars Marley and
Lennon, reminds us all that we live according to an intricate web.
Love and peace are not just repackaged 1960’s ideals, but are in fact
probably the most radical concepts yet conceived by humanity.” Is it not sad that as a race we
have technologically come so far, but yet still have not been able to figure out
how to stop fighting and killing each other over stupid, trivial things?
I realize that most people have come to think that war is just a part of
life and that peace is just some pipe dream, but I do not see it that way. I may be a naive, idealistic
youth, but I would like to think that someday we will have evolved enough to
figure out how to talk to each other to solve problems, rather than feeling the
need to blow each others brains out. But
unfortunately, there are some people who prefer to murder and destroy life. RAPPER
BARKS FOR RESPECT... Young rapper/film star – Lil’ Bow Wow – who I wrote about last month in regards to his starting his own line of urban youth clothing, has decided to drop the Lil’ prefix from his name. Thinking himself to be the “big dog” on the current rap scene, he does not want to be lumped together with all of his fellow teen hip-hop stars who also sport Lil’ in their name. So he is barking loudly that people and press refer to him simply as Bow Wow. Well, that is all for this month, c-ya in June! |
||
|
Web
Design By: 6 String Design © 2003 |
||
