REBECCA HALL: Sunday Afternoon

Rebecca Hall

Sunday Afternoon

© 2002 Listen Here! Records, Inc. (634479363528)

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Deceptively simple retro-folk and country songs that get under your skin. Fine storytelling and subtle, elegant arrangements.

tracks

1 Come Around
2 Sculptor's Song
3 Lessons
4 Rosemary Lane
5 Ballad of Willie
6 Going North
7 Thanks Just the Same
8 Sunday Afternoon
9 O Lord
10 California
11 The False Bride
12 Every Day

notes

"Superb songwriting craft."
Sing Out! Magazine

A relative newcomer to the music scene, Rebecca Hall has managed in only a few years to develop a reputation for concise, classic songwriting. Her compositions echo the folk tradition, but deal with everyday concerns that are timeless. Writes Daniel Gewertz of the Boston Herald, "Rebecca Hall is a true rarity: a new folk classicist." Rebecca's first album--"Sings!"--is a collection of mostly original compositions as well as a few traditional songs. The album started out as a demo made on a home 4-track recorder. Rebecca sold it at shows and handed it out to friends, never really thinking of it as a finished product. Much to her surprise, the record proved to be immediately popular and she soon gained many fans, including Roger McGuinn, Laura Cantrell and BBC Radio 2's Bob Harris, simply by word of mouth. Reviewers noted unanimously that Rebecca's compositions stood up next to the time-tested songs she had chosen from the public domain, and that her music seemed to evoke a bygone era: "Rebecca Hall's songs are uncannily like the timeless traditional songs that inspire her. Indeed, Hall's debut brings to mind recordings of the late-'50's and early '60s, with its spare, heart-felt simplicity."-Sing Out! magazine, Winter 2003

Beautifully produced and orchestrated by Ken Anderson, "Sunday Afternoon," Rebecca's second album, maintains these core influences while coming to life with a rich, full sound. Some songs are couched in lush strings, reminiscent of Nick Drake or the Left Banke; others are spare and almost hymnal in tone, similar to songs by Iris Dement or Gillian Welch. Sarah Meador of Rambles magazine writes: "Few artists ever create songs that might reasonably survive beyond their own memory. Not a track on 'Sunday Afternoon' couldn't survive on its own."

"Sunday Afternoon" was embellished with the help of many local New York City musicians, and the completed album was sent to nationwide AAA, NPR and college radio stations, which responded enthusiastically. Sunday Afternoon soon appeared on numerous playlists, even reaching the top 5 on Boston's WUMB within weeks of release. Rebecca is currently touring to promote this release.

reviews

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  • Great Voice!
    author: tan

    Her voice is like an angel on a Sunday Afternoon!

  • Rebecca's voice is so beautiful!
    author: Linda

    Thanks CD Baby for sending our order of the Sunday Afternoon CD so quickly. My husband and I first heard Rebecca and Ken at a concert in Cicero, NY. We love folk music and Rebecca's voice is so beautiful! The song Come Around on the Sunday Afternoon CD, is my personal favorite. We enjoy listening to Sunday Afternoon and Rebecca Hall Sings and look forward to their next CD.

  • I love this album....
    author: moe ross

    I wake up to this album now, every morning, It is soothing, alive, and carries a resonalte vibe of love ... thank you.

  • author: datdiehl

    Wonderful. Bob Packwood is great on piano. I bought three more copies to use as gifts.

  • author: datdiehl

    This CD is very wonderful, but I miss Rachael Birkin from Rebecca Hall Sings.

  • Rebecca Hall is making a place for herself among the greats of folk tradition.
    author: Sarah Meador

    There's always a tinge of uncertainty when a great traditional performer begins to develop on her own work. In the case of Rebecca Hall's Sunday Afternoon, that uncertainty vanishes in the bright perceptions of the opening "Come Around," to be replaced with a new doubt. It's hard to believe these are modern songs; it seems more plausible that they are traditional classics that have somehow never been heard before. . . .Few artists ever create songs that might reasonably survive beyond their own memory. Not a track on Sunday Afternoon couldn't survive on its own, as a heartfelt ballad or wistful lullaby. They'll live beautifully in your heart.

  • author: David Olney

    There's not an ounce of fat on a Rebecca Hall song. Rebecca's songs are straightforward without being simplistic. They have depth and maturity without pretentiousness. They have an innocent quality that is without any of the usual moralistic posing. In her songwriting and in her performance of those songs, Rebecca maintains a perfect balance of art and artlessness.

  • Brilliantly understated
    author: Charlie Hunter, Flying Under Radar Concerts

    You'd think - after 75,000 girl-and-guitar albums, that it would all have been done before. But on her album "Sunday Afternoon," Rebecca Hall makes contemporary ancient music, original traditional music - and she makes it sound new; rediscovered. Brilliantly understated, it's sort of like Gillian Welch singing Marty Robbins, or maybe Emmylou Harris singing "A Day In the Life." Or Sandy Denny doing Richard Shindell .... once heard, you won't be able to get enough of it.

  • Lush sounds from Rebecca Hall
    author: Scott Howard

    The review of this CD in No Depression, March-April 2003, is what led me to Rebecca Hall, in the first place. This CD is a lusher version of Rebecca Hall Sings!, Rebecca's first CD. Sunday Afternoon reminds me of Nick Drake with it's gentle strings quietly punctuating Rebecca's lovely voice, but it's more polished production does result in a loss of the intimacy of her debut. Personally, I hope Rebecca doesn't continue to pursue such a direction much farther than she does on this CD. Her wonderful story-telling deserves to not be overcome by too many trappings, and God forbid her voice should get buried in the mix because ... oh, what a voice!

  • author: Benny Metten

    Just have a listen to "Thanks Just The Same!" Should be evidence enough to convince you of the fact that Rebecca Hall is a major, major talent!

  • author: Barry Mazor

    New York neo-folk ballad singer and writer Rebecca Hall has been winning compliments from fellow musicians Laura Cantrell and even Roger McGuinn for her updated take on mid-to-late 1960s pop/folk sounds. Sunday Afternoon, her second album, recalls in style the acoustic guitar and string arrangements heard first on Judy Collins' In My Life, then on lusher turns from Leonard Cohen, and on Brit folk-rock productions from Joe Boyd." No Depression, March-April 2003

  • First-rate songwriting
    author: Mark Phillips, Americana-UK.com

    It is the story-telling that is the main attraction, as well as the delicate accompaniments and Rebecca’s sweet, contemplative, lonesome tones...”Sunday Afternoon” would make a welcome addition to any record collection, but especially one with the likes of Nick Drake, Alex Chilton or early Byrds records in it; a special artist who deserves a lot more attention.

  • Great folk
    author: Ed Goodstein

    Rebecca Hall has a beautiful voice & affecting manner. Her own songs are deceptively simple, but highly emotional & committed too. She reminds me a great deal of now largely forgotten folk singer Bonnie Dobson, & her covers of traditional songs recall Pentangle-- if in more straightforward arrangements. Like her label mate, Erica Smith, RH is a fine 'new' voice of neofolk & the gentler side of 'alternative country' akin to Laura Cantrell. This album has a bit more pop sheen than her first-- but in the league of Eva Cassidy-- better in some ways! A great discovery!

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