DEVON SPROULE: Upstate Songs

Devon Sproule

Upstate Songs

© 2003 Devon Sproule (800314655527)

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Think clean kitchen with a plant in the window, the creak of a chair and tap of a toe: Sproule offers a bit of a turning in, a clever collection of stories and observations, and an earful of the most graceful melodies.

tracks

1 Plea for a Good Night's Rest
2 Come Comet or Dove
3 Farewell, Seasick Suffering!
4 Tristan and Isolde
5 Should Have Been Snow
6 You Aren't Really Here, It Isn't Really Light Out
7 White Kite at Georgetown Green
8 My Baby Just Cares for Me
9 Last Summer's Lifeguard
10 Country Sun

notes

“Perhaps the sweetest and most honest folk-pop album recorded this year.” -- ROLLING STONE

With the release of her third CD, Upstate Songs, rising-star Devon Sproule joins the growing roster of artists on City Salvage Records, the independent multi-media label out of Brooklyn, New York. Released on June 3rd, 2003, Upstate Songs features a collection of bright, sparsely arranged compositions and represents a new direction from the grittier, electric sounds that gained Sproule national recognition with the release of her previous two albums.

Raised on Canadian folk music, dead teenager ballads from the 50's and the Beatles on a 465-acre commune in rural Virginia, the twenty-one-year-old Sproule began touring nationally at the age of sixteen, sometimes performing with the accompaniment of a rock band. Although the rock-influenced sounds featured on Long Sleeve Story, released in 2001 and produced by Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard (who also appears on the record) brought Sproule's name to the public eye, it is the music on Upstate Songs that will establish her as a considerable, mature songwriting talent.

In "Plea For A Good Night's Rest," the album's opening track, Sproule measures a good night sleep as a reward for a day well-spent and a life well-lived. Accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, Sproule's angelic voice sings, "Sleep she comes to steal the ones who/Fill their glass and leave the rest/Whose teeth get brushed, who eat enough/And know how to treat their friends."

The brave “Come Comet or Dove” recalls the summer Sproule spent writing and recording Upstate Songs in Woodstock, NY, steeped in the legacy of an acoustic Bob Dylan, Shakespeare in the park, and the hushed pickings of a young Nick Drake. Sproule sings, "The heat had set in as the summer began/ I had just ceased to sing winter's sore tune",

The Donaldson/Kahn-penned standard "My Baby Just Cares For Me" is accorded a sparkling, gleeful treatment by a young artist with, in addition to her own obvious songwriting abilities, a comprehensive appreciation for American popular and folk song traditions.

"Upstate Songs is devastating: a beautifully understated album, haunting yet full of joy. Devon Sproule is fearless," says tour-mate and creator of FOUND Magazine, Davy Rothbart.

Sproule has also toured and/or shared stages with the likes of: Dan Bern, Erin McKeown, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dave Matthews Band, and Kelly Joe Phelps.

Rolling Stone’s “Critic’s Top Albums of 2003” called Upstate Songs, “Perhaps the sweetest and most honest folk-pop album recorded this year.” Critic Julie Gerstein recalls being “blown away by Devon's live performance," she says. "She brings something special to the genre...a sense of sweetness, innocence and clarity.

Sproule’s live concerts capture her at her best: candid, poetic and with stage presence that is at once youthfully charming and self-possessed.

reviews

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  • love it
    author: Daphne

    can't seem to take this one out of my CD player, and even at work, the songs run their beautiful melodies and poignant words through my head all day.

  • What a lovely CD
    author: Ken

    I can't stop playing Tristan and Isolde - it's my latest best song ever in the entire universe!

  • beautiful
    author: Marianne

    I absolutely loved this lovely CD. An awesome songwriter. A poet. A voice like an angel.

  • author: Mary Wood

    I saw Devon perform last weekend in Shepherdstown, WV. Everyone was captivated. We sat there listening so intently hoping to not miss a word of her poetic songs. Bought the cd Upstate Songs and enjoyed every track on the drive home. So touching and original.

  • Eloquent and other worldly
    author: nancy kelly

    When i put Upstate Songs in my player I drove round and round our back country roads and could not, could NOT get past the first song because of it's captivating beauty and eloquence. I eventually went home to bed, dreaming of 'revenant...and gentle hosts' and was able to listen to song 2 by morning and the same thing happened. This girl's gift is otherworldly.

  • Incandescent and fresh--a lovely CD
    author: djespie

    An excellent disc worth adding to any collection. Buy it now.

  • A wonderful tapestry of life
    author: Allen and Stacy Smith

    Stacy and I meet Devon at the North Caroline School of The Arts. She had come to play for students at the small coffee stop on campus. Devon came to my wife's Bass recital and it was wonderful to talk to a fellow musican. Well that has been about five years ago. Stacy now plays double bass in two symphony's in winston salem and life is good. I'm glad to see that Devon's career is growing. Devon's new album rocks. It's pure poerty. Keeping it up Devon! A. Smith - March 2006 meadrun@yahoo.com

  • Upstate Songs: Not to be overlooked!
    author: Patricia

    Each song reads like its own vignette, capturing a story or scene. Upstate Songs evokes images of car rides and coffee breaks, an odyssey of simply being. The simple instrumentatation and Devon's beautiful voice complement one another extremely well; in the end, nothing is overdone and I don't think that anything is lacking.

  • stunning
    author: Grace

    I saw Devon play at my college and was captivated by her candidness and energy. She puts herself so completely into her music and the honesty with which she offers this part of herself gives the music more power and beauty than anything I've heard in a long time. I wouldn't have missed seeing her play for anything. A huge thank you to Devon.

  • captivating
    author: Evin Fox

    My CD arrived just before I left for a car trip. I threw it in with my other CDs just before taking off. I put in Devon's CD and never listened to another CD the whole trip. What an incredible talent.

  • Favorite Female Vocalist
    author: Myrtle Ruth Harned

    I truly thought that there was nothing great left to hear. I felt abandoned by the music scene. What happened to it? Where did the songwriters slip off to? Then I found my answer at CDBABY. And for female singer/songwriters, no one, absolutely NO ONE, can hold a candle to Devon Sproule. Upstate Songs was my initiation into the world of her musical offerings, and a stunning one at that. Although I purchase 2-3 dozen CDs a month, I rarely listen to one more than a few times. Upstate Songs stayed in my player for well over a month, while the other new discs piled up and collected dust. Sproule may have the insightfulness of J. Mitchell and the conviction of McLachlan, but nobody can truly weave words into a tapestry of song, and then deliver that song in such an ethereal and awe-inspiring way as she can. I remain convinced that the day this CD was made, the angels in heaven stopped to hear. And they wept at its beauty. Just as this reviewer did and continues to do. Thanks to Ms. Sproule for turning this hum-bug into a musical optimist.

  • Absolutely amazing
    author: Mo

    Devon's guitar playing is impressive, but the real gem is her voice, a strangely delicate, unaffected, innocent-sounding and yet direct and expressive voice. Don't miss the opportunity to see her live on stage!

  • Nothing Short of Lovely
    author: Katrina McMinds

    It keeps getting better! I have all 3 of Devon's CD's and I'm anxiously waiting for the release of her next one. This CD is perfect for dancing around the house, or singing at the top of your lungs in your car! Devon's music has so much feeling and emotion in her songs her voice just echoes through your body and gives you goose bumps! It's beautiful! I highly recommend adding this CD to your collection, b/c everyone needs a piece of Devon every now and then.

  • A song for every occasion. I love it.
    author: Deanna

    I love to play this CD in the car and sing along (really loudly). I don't care who sees me. Sproule wrote some very personal lyrics on this CD but anyone can understand and love them and identify with them. I recommend it to anyone who likes to sing along (and also to people who don't). Ok, I just recommend it for everyone.

  • fantastic voice
    author: Rachi

    If you want to hear a beautiful voice and plenty of talent for those hazy days where its raining outside and you have to do your work, this CD is perfect. I can project it round the house without worrying that my walls are going to fall down, because its peaceful no matter how loud. Brilliant CD, I would recomend it to anyone.

  • Incredible, her voice is innocent wisdom... the sparrow's song.
    author: John Gawthrop, Senior Producer News 14

    It is a superior Junior effort. Every song resonates with country simplicity and eloquent grace. Folk music has a new voice and a new face.

  • A beautiful voice and a great album!!!!!!!
    author: Steven Radford

    Go and buy this album now sit back relax and just listen a pleasure...............

  • Devon's voice is angelic, and her music is divine
    author: Jennifer

    The quality of the songs on this CD are quite a treat. The sound of this music and the lyrics are filled with originality and emotion in a hauntingly beautiful way. Highly recommended!

  • One of my very favourite CDs in years
    author: Hugues Orsetti

    Such a joy to enter the songs world of a new, refreshing, so personal and talented artist like the young Devon Sproule! Each song affects you somewhere in your mind or your heart (it may be the same thing after all), this is so charming, warm, peaceful, poetic, haunting, romantic, honest... I hadn't heard such personality in the free folk field since Dar Williams and Christine Lavin. Devon is a great singer, lyricist and melodist, a complete, impressive and amazing talent.

  • Fantastic. Young Devon Sproule is an absolute wonder, luminous.
    author: Puremusic.com

    To be this musically evolved at 21, one might need to be on their third record already, and to have a handful of years of national touring under their belt. They might indeed, and this one is, and has. Most of the selections on Upstate Songs are just Devon Sproule and her guitar. I've heard many a seasoned and celebrated professional do that and not measure up to these tracks. Paul Curreri adds his great acoustic playing to a trio of tunes, and "Tristan and Isolde" with April Leightty on viola is particularly memorable. We kid you not, this person is like someone from another time, if not another planet. She is one of our favorite new artists, and people. Disarmingly charming, and confoundingly talented.

  • Amazing Talent
    author: Raechel Morera

    Living in Virginia, I relate to her lyrics. I wish I had written all of them myself. She is an amazing writing talent and guitarist. Each album is better than the last!

  • Yes, it's great!
    author: Ed Goodstein

    All the reviews are right :)! This is wonderful singer/songwriter fare, & even unique and unusual. And quite a contrast to her also great LONG SLEEVE STORY album.

  • A Great Modern Singer/Songwriter
    author: The Paper

    Upstate Songs, Sproule’s third effort, showcases her talents as songwriter and chanteuse infinitely more than her previous efforts (which express more of a lost and searching mood than the comfort of Upstate Songs). The range of Sproule’s voice is intoxicating, her songs soft and awkward. Her words are precise in their originality, literate in their reading and profound in their delivery. Sproule’s knowledge of the poetry of objects and metaphor is rampantly at work in her songs to profound effect. She’s simply blessed with the elements necessary for a great modern singer/songwriter. It’s tough to pick highlights, with Sproule’s emotive inflections of melancholy and bliss resting so effective in so many forms, but the back-to-back “Farewell, Seasick Suffering!” and “Tristan and Isolde” are especially charming.

  • Absolutely great!

    This is an amazing cd. The songs are beautifully written and Devon's voice is just amazing. Truly beautiful.

  • Beauty with a ragged edge
    author: Stephan

    Leave five stars for absolute perfection - but this is a very beautiful record! If the lyrics seem a bit romantic at times, they are offset by Devon's voice and guitar that hint at her rough edge (which comes to the fore in "Should have been snow") and turns the record from the "post-adolescent young woman with guitar" genre into a truly artistic effort. Go on, Devon, and keep your balance!

  • Unforgettable voice, melodies, song structure. Just listen to it.
    author: Chris

    Incredible album from start to finish. Even if you are not a big folk music fan (I am not), I think you should give this album a listen... It will be well worth the time. Her melodies are completely unforgettable, and there is some very good guitar work on this album as well.

  • Absolutely amazing CD
    author: als

    This CD is perfect for every occasion; I listen to it all the time and highly recommend buying it. It is definitely a CD that every person should have.

  • beautiful, haunting, my favorite record i've ever heard
    author: Davy Rothbart -- FOUND Magazine

    "Upstate Songs" is my favorite record of all time, in fact, it is my single most cherished possession. So it may seem strange when I say that I only listen to it every once in a while. Let me explain: Devon Sproule's music is so beautiful, haunting, and crushing that to listen to it more frequently is to risk being overwhelmed. And yet there are times when I want to experience intense and exquisite and excruciating beauty -- that's when I cue up "Upstate Songs." Don't get me wrong, this record is not all heartbreak and devastation -- there are great moments here of joy, surprise, and even rowdiness. Devon, with the voice of a ragamuffin angel, captures the ragged sadnesses and triumphs of being alive.

  • Someday a classic
    author: Wil Farmington

    This record really breathes. It takes its time. The guitar work is something special, and the production is spectacular. Jeff Romano, who is listed as the engineer, Paul Curreri, who plays some guitar and who should be more famous for his own work, and Devon Sproule did a fantastic job keeping this record just where it should be. It's abbreviated and understated. Sproule's lyrics are great. Her guitar playing is really something. But it's her voice that takes this record to the grand heights it lives within. It's just so sensitive, so perfect. This record will someday be called a classic. It strays away from all the safe singer-songwriter avenues and looks for something bigger and more truthful. A classic. It's absolutely that good.

  • I wonder if Devon knows her gifts
    author: Wes Hargrove

    I just caught Devon Sproule again in Eugene, Oregon, where I'd seen her just a few months prior. I was more than rewarded... this time she played with the astounding Paul Curreri, who I've heard so much about (check cdbaby.com). And though this recent Oregon performance will stay in my mind forever, "Upstate Songs" continually harvests new rewards. This record is phenomenal!!! Sproule is single-handedly disrupting the standard for female singer-songwriter. She plays guitar like an American guitar hero. Her lyrics must make Plath and Neruda laugh and admire, and her melodies close my eyes when I could care less about relaxing. BUY IT! Paul Curreri co-produced and you can hear it! But in the end, Sproule is her own talented angelic monster. BUY IT.

  • So so good.....
    author: Victor Cedar

    Amen! Amen! This record makes me feel postively holy! It's like discovering all the wonders that somehow come out of the ground, and right then, along comes Upstate Songs. With her studied lyrics and naturally gifted voice, not to mention notable guitarwork, Devon Sproule has presented us with an unforgetable cd. And look! It's Paul Curreri too. Talk about noteworthy guitarwork! Their combined efforts and care result in this beautiful record. Save yourself another sad minute of not owning this album. Buy it now.

  • A real rarity
    author: Vicki Levine

    I saw Mars recently. It's close to us now, you know. This may sound ridiculous, but it's true. I was out in a field, staring through my amateur lense at our neighbor planet, and guess what I started thinking about? Upstate Songs. "Mars is far," I thought, "Upstate Songs is close," absurdly apples and oranging their beauties. Everything about this record is close. The songs rest close to your heart! Devon Sproule and the brilliant Paul Curreri's playing (and production) draw from their closeness and love, which you can really hear. I find myself pressed against the speaker, marveling at the rarity that a song like Plea for a Good Night's Rest is written. Discard your crappy songwriter CDs. Sproule does more than surpass, she introduces (with Curreri right there with her) a seldom visited ballpark. And though I trust it's not, it all sounds effortless.

  • Quite Good -- What are you waiting for?
    author: Ian23

    My measure of a good record is that it must have a couple of outstanding, individually great, unique tracks. A great record has three or more such tracks. This is a great record. :)

  • It made me homesick for some place...
    author: Michael Capozzola

    What a mesmerizing sound and brilliant record. I cannot stop listening to it. I saw Devon on the Found Magazine/ Night Travelers tour and was hooked. What a find, indeed. She's up there with Joe Henry for singwriting abilities--and the girl can enchant like Noe Venable or Martin Sexton. This is a very talented person who has produced a piece of work almost too good for words.

  • love for midnight company vocals yes yummy
    author: martha

    This is the most perfect cd I have ever heard for when you can't sleep. It's company for a wonderfully moody summer night awake. I hardly need friends anymore. It's true.

  • grammy goes to best female vocalist
    author: AJAY

    I REALLY LIKE THE SONG "PLEA FOR A GOOD NIGHT REST" THE FEMALE VOCALS ARE INFECTIOUS AND THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR IS REALLY ON POINT GREAT SONG

  • You should marry Devon
    author: Jacob Fawcett

    Devon's Upstate Songs really reminds me of the simple understated beauty of Jewel circa Pieces of You...times about a million! But derivative this album is not. Devon's has come into her own with this CD - her voice seems much more comfortable this time around, settled into a kind of quivering vulnerability that tugs at your heart despite her characteristically quirky enunciation. More significantly, her sound has changed drastically since her last album, Long Sleeve Story - this one sounds much more like her impressive debut, featuring sparse instrumentation and restrained production. Her songs are gentle and deceptively light: Plea For a Good Night's Rest, Tristan and Isolde, Last Summer's Lifeguard and Country Sun all fit the "music you can fall asleep listening to genre", and even Should Have Been Snow, which is about as close to the Long Sleeve Storyish slow jam as she comes in this album, is less grunge than a smouldering line of blues. I can't say good enough things about this CD. I want to marry Devon. You should, too.

  • honest, sweet and piercing. i found myself comforted.
    author: e c l

    i haven't written a review before, but i felt i needed to say something about this album. when i first heard devon play, (at night in a garden,) i thought it the kind of music i'd want to fall asleep to, something to console me into rest. but then i bought the cd, and realized i want to be awake for it- the lyrics are something like poetry, and the songs in general feel so honest, like devon found a way to condense her sweetest, most piercing emotion into music. i love the high notes in "plea for a good night's rest"- 'my love wakes shaking with nightmare' particularly entered me. that and "white kite at goergetown green" are the songs i most often sing to myself, but there are quite a few others . . .disproportionatly many, when i think of other albums i can't help but sing from. i'm not so much a folk-music person, so i encourage others like me to try this album. because it is honest, and consoling.

  • this is a must own if you enjoy folk music.
    author: david bauser

    since i heard devon play an acoustic show at the campus coffee house at NCSA i knew i loved her music. but what was to come of her now was a supprise. this cd is the embodyment of what i consider great folk music. her voice is amazing as well as the calm styles of guitar in such songs as my personal favorite "plea for a good nights rest". this collection of amazing songs literally had me in tears and gave me great joy in my knowing of devon and now i respect her to a new extreem every time i write her. she has become a true musical influence for my songwriting and i am glad that she is around to enlighten the life of any listeners. spending however much money is no issue... this album is a must own, hands down. just as bono from U2 said of Jeff Buckley and his voice devons voice is "...a pure drop in an ocean of sound." it is truely splended.

  • Devon Sproule has come of age on "Upstate Songs"
    author: C-ville Weekly 6/03

    I received a rough mix of Devon Sproule's "Upstate Songs" about five months ago and since then it's become a constant companion, gracing the latest of nights with lush melodies, tales of young love and true hearts -- the strains of a viola carving out the falling notes of a beautiful sorrow. "Plea For a Good Night's Rest," a soul mate's lullaby that revels in the shared solitude of a primitive, candle-lit cabin, blindsided me from the start, and is, without reservation, an instant classic. So much so that if "Plea" were to appear 10 years from now in a songbook next to Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," I might only blink and admire the juxtaposition. "Upstate Songs" is loaded with such treasures: "Tristan and Isolde," "Should Have Been Snow," "Farewell, Seasick Suffering!" and "Country Sun" mark quantum leaps in the development of Sproule's songwriting. So taken, I have come to associate Sproule with Miranda from "The Tempest," wandering her island under the spell of Ariel's music and exclaiming "Oh my!" to the brave new world before her. Yes, Devon Sproule has come of age on "Upstate Songs".

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