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What's most interesting about Boston based Sarah Woolf is not her understated breathy vocal delivery. It's not her moody, folksy, alternarock sound. It's not her new back up band or her back up vocalists or her intriguing expressive painting that graces the cover of the CD.
It's not even the fact that the album is dedicated to her friend
Mia Zapata, former lead singer of the Seattle band the Gits who was mysteriously murdered
in July of 1993.
What's most compelling of the 27-year-old singer-songwriter's first album is her lyrical content and style. Upon closer inspection her seemingly- amateurish songs reveal an engaging simplicity and humorous post-modern edge. Woolf alternates between a direct story-telling method and (in her own words) a "vague existentialist" route. Throughout, however, she delivers straight from the heart, and her conversational style is refreshing.
The album's strongest song ios the title track, which relays in amusing detail her reaction to that common dyke phenomina, the mistaken gender incident:
"And when I found the symbol of a lady in a dress/ Two old ladies came up to me in distress/ One of them said 'Excuse me sonny the men's room is over there!'/ I falshed her my tit and said 'Thank you dear'". Other highlights include "Eat Shit & Die", a bluesy kiss-off to an ex-lover, the tongue and cheek "Folksinger", a wry commentary on the folk and womyn's communities, and the melancholy "Mia" a somber tribute to her slain friend. All in all, Ask My Lover is an impressive debut for Sarah Woolf.
written by Margaret Coble - Girlfriends Magazine May-June 1996
Discography
1990 Sarah Woolf - On the Levee (demo- out of print)
1993 Sarah Woolf - self-titled EP
1995 Sarah Woolf -Ask My Lover CD
2003 Sarah Woolf - Salutations From Somberville CD (Wicked Queeah Records/BMI)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Sarah Woolf - timeline
1968- Born
1970- Began to play ukulele. Learned
“Pennylane” by the Beatles on uke.
1976- began first grade. Couldn’t read
but was already playing 4 instruments.
1984- trapped in highschool. played several
woodwind instruments, percussion, and guitar.
Began busking in Harvard Square.
1986- graduated from highschool, but couldn’t read
what was on my diploma. Moved to Israel.
1987- Back from Israel after teaching saxophone,
observing Palestinian/Israeli chaos, and first aid.
Broke the news to my folks I couldn’t read. Learned
how to read.
Attended a homophobic art school in Columbus, Ohio
Transferred to Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH.
1988-1991 was part of an amazing music scene at
Antioch. Co-billed with “Big Brown House”,
“Tom Roadkill & the Flat Rabbits” and “The Gits”.
Sold 500 copies of demo tape to a campus that only
had about 300 students.
1991- BA in Education and visual arts.
1993- Released self titled EP in Boston. Toured extensively
nationwide.
1995- Released CD called “Ask My Lover”
Toured the East Coast extensively.
1996- Busking in the MBTA and playing the local venues.
1997- Ah...hello my hands are moving. Diagnosed with arthritis.
Rehab for 3 years.
2000- Back out there playing electric guitar.
2001- Diagnosed correctly with Sjogren’s Syndrome. That’s
what made my hands fuck up. Treatable and won’t kill me.
2002-2003 Recorded my new songs with my pals Richard Gates, Carolyn
Castellano, Holly Figueroa, Chadd Ferron, and Suzannah Luna.
Appropriately entitled “Salutations from Somberville”.
2004- Spring US/Canada tour
presently gigging East and West coasts.
Why call it “Salutations From Somberville”?
Being sick made me somber and sarcastic as all hell.
It’s also a play on words since I live in Somerville, MA
which I think of as a somber town with a lot of character respectively.
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