Musical Moment: Lari White's Don't Fence Me In

Hello My Music Loving Friends,

I've been toying with the idea of doing Musical Moment write ups about the music in my music collection. So Mondays, maybe not every Monday, I'm gonna to take a CD and have a Musical Moment Monday where I talk about the music, the cover, the disc design, and what ever odds and ends I can include with the particular album. Cause in this electronic age we miss some of this awesome stuff. I was going to go and do like one artist at a time and cover all their CDs in my collection, but that could be a very long post. So I'll do it a CD, maybe even cassette, at a time.

I originally was gonna start with a series of posts featuring Taylor Swift, but in lieu of the passing of Lari White I thought it appropriate the first one be dedicated to her. I was saddened to read of her passing on Bryan White's Facebook page. She was a beautiful woman, she made some great songs that I enjoyed through my middle and early high school years. This will be e the only album I cover of hers for now, cause it's the only one I own.

Artist: Lari White

Album: Don't Fence Me In
Cover: The cover features Lari White in a white dress looking to me like she's enjoying being blown about by the wind. She's in a field looking set up with a blue hued storm clouds appearing back drop, I guess the image of a untamed field and untamed storm point back to the albums title. The artist name is in white, fitting given her name, I wanna say it was done in a hand written looking font, but I don't think it's the artist's own signature. The album title is printed in a green.

Booklet: Most of the photos within the booklet feature color and black and white photos of Lari in the field looking like she's enjoying the state of being free and unfenced. There is a set of three photos that are close ups on her face. She's adorned in black in front of a brown background. The first of the trio I'd have to title as "Thoughtful", the second "Joy", the third "Profile". Below the photos is this quote from Shakespeare's Othello, given the amazing "Super Blue Blood Moon" event coming up I think the quote is kinda fitting. She actually mentions the poet in her thank you, I just wonder now how he inspired her.

Back Cover: The inside photo is a blue toned image of the artist standing in front of a floral print wallpapered wall like something out of an elegant parlor. The outside photo is the same scenery as the front cover minus the artist and an addition of an image of the full moon, once again fitting for the lunar event, that seems to have a burlap texture to it. The song titles and info is in white.

The Disk: It's off white with looks like silhouettes of the grass from the cover, the album title is in a muddy brown color, and the artist's name in Simply Nailogical's favorite color: Holo.

The Music:

Don't Fence Me- According to the song's Wikipedia entry, this song was written by Cole Porter and a poet named Robert Fletcher, and has been used in a couple of Roy Roger's flicks. On this album we get a 33 second live recording in which Lari sings in a style reminiscent of the old western songs along with singers Shelby Lynn and Trisha Yearwood (who was one of my first favorite singers and first "grown up" cassette I owned). The song sounds like it's being played on a record, graininess and all, or maybe one of those old fashioned radios. To add to the record effect the tune ends abruptly with a scratch as though you've taken the needle off leading straight way to the next more song an back into a modern sound.

Wild At Heart- This is a song that was written by Lari herself and Al Anderson. Basically it's a woman trying to get a guy to loosen up a bit. It's a song that I think would be a perfect fast dance number for the honky tonk, complete with fiddle and steel guitar.

Ready, Willing, and Able- I have such memories of this song, written by Jess Leary and Judy Alan Sweet. This was being played on radio when I was in Middle School. I loved this song. Probably even imagined myself on stage singing it, which was the case with many songs by female artists.

Ghost of a Chance- Another penned by White with Chuck Jones about a woman trying to compete with her love's past relationship, makes me think of Trisha Yearwood's The Woman Before Me. The song opens with blowing wind and a creaky door followed by whispers, perhaps the whispers of this man's past love that won't let him be.

The Test- Written by Don Schlitz and Billy Livsey about someone who is putting their relationship to the test with basically a pros and cons list and how love can be a stronger than any trouble they may experience.

Ain't Gonna Worry About Love No More- I really enjoy this upbeat number written by Michael Noble, which I really hope isn't like a continuation of the previous song's tale. Here we find a woman, that assume has just gotten out of a relationship, and is putting matters of the heart on hold.

Next to Love- Lari White and Chuck Cannon writes about hanging onto each other and love. That's all I got for this one.

Something Blue- Another song written by White and Cannon using the old wedding belief that you need something old, new, borrowed, and blue and using it to describe a failed marriage. This another song with a prominent steel guitar.

Do It Again- A third song with the just mentioned twice songwriting pair along with previously mention Chuck Jones. It's basically about someone who believes the old saying if they could live their life over they'd do it the same way.

I've Been Waiting For Love- A sweet love song by Stephuny Smith, never seen that name spelt that way, and Terry Burns where a woman has finally found that love she's been holding out hope for. Yeah still in the waiting stage for me.

Soul Searchin' Blues- Lari solo wrote this great blues number, only 42 seconds in length, maybe this song is the answer to life and everything (Hitchhiker' Guide to the Galaxy peeps know what I'm talkin' about). It sounds like a group of friends and herself got together and did a little acoustic jam somewhere.

Woman of the World- Once again we find White and Jones writing of two different women one who has been all over the country, especially towns that share names with famous foreign (to the US) cities, and one who's a hard working Mom who's never left her home county, but each woman has strength to overcome the hardships in their lives.

Don't Fence Me In (Reprise)- She "ends" her album with the rest of the opening song once again a live recording, but done in a more fast passed I guess you call it modern honky tonk style.

Soul Searchin' Blues- Apparently as a more or less hidden track , well it's not labeled in the book, but is numbered on the CD player, Lari included the entire version of the song. She gives a mention to the devil, which isn't he sometimes involved in stories of blues singers ( read this tale about Robert Johnson). Amazing the stuff I learn about music lore from the Travel Channel.

Extra Bits: I read that country singer Vince Gill did some background vocals, I'm not sure which song, will require a closer listening I guess. If any of you know let me know in the comments. *I gave a closer listen even though Vince Gill has a signature I'm not sure which one there's a few possible ones, if I was a betting person I'd say Something Blue is at least one of them*

And that's a wrap! Lari ended the album by saying "mighty cool" and I have to say her music was "mighty cool", and I'm sure she was too. I was giving her music another listen as I was on her official site and it just seemed like her photo had me hypnotized for a moment and you just wanted to wish her a peaceful rest and thank her for the music.

On a final note I have to say I really enjoyed doing this. It really gave me a chance to sit and not only give the entire album a good listen, but also really study the cover and CD art, and just learn things I didn't know before, example being the nods she gave Shakespeare. But stay tuned cause I got a lot more where that came from. I hope you have a good week my friends, and may God Bless You!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer