ANDY HILL & RENEE SAFIER: It Takes A Lot To Laugh

Andy Hill & Renee Safier

It Takes A Lot To Laugh

© 2001 Andy Hill & Renee Safier (634479030444)

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Bob Dylan Tribute album. An acoustic treatment of these great Dylan tunes.

tracks

1 One Too Many Mornings
2 A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
3 It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
4 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
5 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
6 Simple Twist Of Fate
7 When The Ship Comes In
8 Just Like A Woman
9 Emotionally Yours
10 It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
11 One More Cup Of Coffee
12 Mama, You've Been On My Mind
13 Seven Curses
14 Shooting Star

notes

Since a chance meeting at the University of Denver, Andy Hill and his singing partner Renee Safier have carved out a unique musical niche for themselves in the Los Angeles club scene (and beyond). Their performances – more than two-hundred a year – are as much social gathering as musical event. Part fan family reunion, part rock & roll tent revival, their incomparable live shows attract a large, enthusiastic, and fiercely loyal group of fans.

As a songwriter, Andy Hill is a student of the folk and rock classics – Van Morrison, The Band, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan – and it shows. Boundary-pushing use of the language, sweeping vocal harmonies, unforgettable melodic content, and tightly crafted arrangements are all hallmarks of his writing and producing style.

Andy & Renee, along with their band Hard Rain, have taken their unique sound and multi-instrumental skills (as well as being riveting vocalists, they both play guitars and keyboards) to venues large and small all over the world. Local Southern California highlights include House of Blues and the El Rey Theatre in Hollywood, and the Hermosa Beach Civic Theatre. They have also played at Telluride Blues Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival, Napa Valley Folk Festival, Sierra Songwriter’s Festival, Winery Music Awards and the Bob Dylan Festival in Italy.

Their nine independent CD releases have won them countless awards, including: 2007 LA Music Awards “Americana Group of the Year”, “Best Duo/Group” for the 2005 International Acoustic Music Awards, Kweevak.com “Top-40 CDs of the Year, runner-up for Best Folk Act at the 1999 Crossroads Music Awards, and a two year run in the Musician Magazine “Best Unsigned Band” Semifinals.

In 2005, Renee Safier, showcasing her prodigious blues and jazz vocal chops, won the Telluride Blues Festival Acoustic Blues Competition, receiving a rousing response from the 8,000-plus festival crowd. She returned again in 2006 & 2007 for 2 successful performances during the 3-day festival. In addition to all this, Andy Hill and Renee Safier are about to celebrate their sixteenth year hosting their own Bob Dylan Festival. What started out as a small once-a-year backyard party where a loose conglomerate of close friends would take turns performing Dylan classics all day and well into the night (or until the cops came), has evolved into a full blown music festival attended by hundreds of fans and featuring many of L.A.’s top musicians.

Andy Hill and Renee Safier both live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles.


AWARDS:
*2007 Los Angeles Music Awards "Americana Group of the Year"
*2007 We Are Listening Singer Songwriter Awards: Honorable Mention
*2007 West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest: Honorable Mention
*2006 IAMA Finalists, Best Duo /Group and Best Female Vocal
*2005 Renee Safier - 2005 Solo Acoustic Blues Competition Winner
*2005 International Acoustic Music Awards: Best Duo/Group
*2004 Kweevak.com "Top 40" CDs of the Year: A River is Gone
*2001 & 1993 Kerrville New Folk Finalist
*1999 Crossroads Music Awards Finalist - Folk
*1999 Napa Valley Music Festival Finalist
* 1999 Sierra Songwriters Festival Finalist
* 1997 Musician Magazine: Best Unsigned Band Semifinalist
* 1996 Musician Magazine Best Unsigned Band Semifinalist

reviews

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  • Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
    author: Mark S. Tucker

    "...Safier's voice oft drips with an aching sensitivity filtered through delicate beauty and a fragility that would break and disappear in less capable hands...Hill's cuts drenched in prairie sod, the workingman's lament, and a salt-of-the-earth sprechestimme...So what about Marty Rifkin? Jesus, but this guy knows the depths of his art and instruments dead cold, nailing colorative and side-lead aspects in witheringly arresting lines, fills, and incidentals. His dobro playing is heavenly and that pedal steel's highly reminiscent of Red Rhodes."

  • Best Dylan tribute album I've heard in a long time.
    author: Steve Sevek [producer of CD: Thinking About Bob Dylan]

    I was really happy to find this CD. [After purchasing a few others that were disappointing from other artists.] Each year around the anniversary of Dylan's birthday I take my Dylan CDs including Dylan cover songs to a local public radio station and play them. It's an early program [6 to 8AM] but I enjoy doing it. This is one CD I hope to play at least 3 songs from this year [May 20, 2006 - WJFF in Jeffersonville, NY]

  • They got it right! ... A must have CD
    author: Claude Julien

    Rarely have I heard two quality musicians with such beautiful voices. Of all the Bob Dylan Tributes, this one ranks on top. It's relatively easy to play Bob, but to play Bob WELL, that's another story! They got it right, It's a must have CD. Don' t hesitate, you'll listen to it, over and over. CJ

  • A Must Have!
    author: Michael Sullivan

    Ever notice some major acts will once in a while put out an album of favorite songs of other folks. Cover tunes they are called and its a quick and cheap way to throw some product out there while the artist records some new songs. Some are fun (Huey Lewis) and some are a terrible mistake (i.e. Shawn Colvin's Cover Girl). But once in a great while you strike gold and get an album that actually improves on the original and this effort by L.A. based duo Andy and Renee is solid gold. They have been big Bob Dylan fans and decided to put out a CD with some of Bob's classic tunes and its a beauty. For one thing, you can hear (finally) what the hell Dylan has been mumbling about and second of all, Renee Safier brings out the very essence of what is being said. The music is spare but it only helps showcase the very talented Hill/Safier harmonies. This album has 14 Dylan songs, including "Simple Twist of Fate","A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall". This is a must have..... for more info:http://www.andyandrenee.com

  • Impressive.
    author: Shaun Dale

    You'll have to go on-line (www.andyandrenee.com) to pick this one up, but if you're admirer of the songwriting skills of Bob Dylan (i.e., if you're alive and not deaf), then this tribute from the SoCal folkies Andy Hill and Renee Safier is worth the effort. Drawing on a wide chronological range of the Dylan songbook, Hill and Safier, accompanied by Marty Rifkin on bass, guitar and various slide variations, offer 14 straightforward interpretations. Their selection of material is impeccable and impressive, frequently departing from the obvious in order to include the excellent. Their ten years as a performing duo, and five previous albums largely devoted to Hill's songwriting, contribute to a fine intuitive sense of arrangement, with their voices weaving and blending in just the right ways in all the right spots. The duo has been throwing Bob Dylan birthday parties for as long as they've been singing together, inviting all comers to arrive in costume and join in the music. They may have trouble getting the sing-a-long going next year, because any guest who has heard this disc is likely to want to just sit back and hear more excellent interpretations from this talented pair.

  • Very nicely done!
    author: Aiding & Abetting

    There are many ways to make a tribute album. Andy Hill and Renee Safier do 14 Bob Dylan songs here, some better known than others. The reason this album works (and it does) is that Hill and Safier make the songs their own. Even while (generally) using Dylan's phrasing, the duo messes with the arrangements just enough to provide a fresh take on these songs. What also helps is the bare-bones sound. Hill and Safier keep the songs acoustic (with the exception of some keyboards programmed to sound like a piano and some electric guitar on "Emotionally Yours"), and that helps the songs ring out true. Tributes like this can often sound forced or strained, like the artists are reaching for something they can't attain. Hill and Safier are extremely comfortable with these songs, and so the pieces roll off like old friends. Which, of course, they are.

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