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Also this issue: Nevermore Again Suzanne Vega Dan Fogelberg Brother Ali Elliott The Fleshtones Prefuse 73/Four Tet HearHere |
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May 29-June 4, 2003
music
Mary Fahl’s on the rise with a brand-new project.
The original voice behind October Project, Mary Fahl seems to have finally gotten the nudge her solo career needed: specifically, a major-label debut, The Other Side of Time, released last week on Sony’s quasi-classical Odyssey label.
"The best work of my career" is how the Hoboken, N.J., resident describes the new record, which features Fahl's blossoming songwriting talent on 12 of its 14 tracks. "I co-wrote with a lot of great people," she says. "It's undoubtedly the most courageous thing I've ever done. I'm really putting myself out there with this one."
After a less-than-pleasant parting of ways with the folk-rocking October Project, Fahl busied herself with small club gigs, commercial work (including a few somewhat Middle Eastern-sounding Audi voiceovers), releasing an EP, Lenses of Contact, along the way. When Sony came courting, she was ready.
"I auditioned for them in New York City a week after the 9/11 attacks," Fahl recalls. "Everyone was still dumbstruck by the events. The whole thing was a heady experience -- singing my heart out from a building where you could see where the Towers stood."
Inspired by the early works of Judy Collins to make a record "that has a little bit of everything but still works," The Other Side of Time is, more than anything, a showcase for Fahl's potent, soaring, almost otherworldly alto.
"I've always liked big, passionate singers who are real," she says. "I've always believed: phony person, phony singer. I'm without guile."
Fahl re-recorded a few of her Lenses and concert faves: "Raging Child," "Redemption" and "Paolo," as well as her big number -- "Going Home" -- from the well-hyped but critically panned film Gods and Generals. The new album even features Fahl's take on an opera aria, "Una Furtiva Lagrima," from L'Elisir d'Amore. ("That was the label's idea," Fahl says. "I'm not an opera singer, but it was a beautiful piece of music.") While the last October Project album, 1995's Falling Farther In, was "tremendously stressful," her first major-label project since was "filled with absolute perfect moments."
"It goes to some different places," Fahl says. "My goal was to have it take you on an emotional journey, into its own world."
Mary Fahl plays Tue., June 3, 8:30 p.m., $20, The Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770.
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