Given the critical acclaim surrounding Sara Hickman's "Shortstop" and "Equal Scary People," you would have thought Elektra would have been eager to release a third album.
But Hickman's record sales did not meet the expectations of certain stuffed shirts, so her third recording went unreleased, after which Elektra unceremoniously divorced the budding singer-songwriter.The problem, at least for Hickman, was that Elektra still owned the songs she had written. So the still-struggling singer-songwriter tried to buy them back from the record label (the asking price was originally $100,000).
"I sold my house, my dining room table, my antique salt and pepper shakers, even some of my guitars," she said. But the money just wasn't there. So she decided to try another tack: She wrote her fanatically loyal fans, explaining her dilemma and asking them to contribute $100 each so Sara could buy back the rights to her own songs. In return, each contributor would receive a bracelet naming them a "necessary angel."
Now, more than a year later, with the release of "Necessary Angels" on the Discovery label (a division of Warner Music), the question is whether all that grit and determination was worth it. Well, mostly yes.
"Necessary Angels" is not as good as "Shortstop," a personal favorite, and some songs are antidotes for insomnia. Others, however, offer a stunning exercise in quiet beauty and musical poetry.
In many respects, "Necessary Angels" is hauntingly reminiscent of the late-great Kate Wolf, whose acoustic ballads and heart-piercing lyrics set a standard for subsequent songwriters (Nanci Griffith comes foremost to mind). Sara Hickman's music has that same intangible element that evokes both loneliness and a peaceful solitude in a poet's world where retrospection and regret are seamlessly wedded to prophecy and faith.
More than anything (and somewhat of a change of pace from her earlier work), there is a sense of inner strength as she sings "stick to your guns, look to the skies, break a sweat . . . 'til your dream's realized."
There seems to be plenty of pain and anger still boiling beneath the lyrical surface ("old-fashioned drinks laced with regret . . ."), but rather than throwing a poetic pity party because evil people are "building you up just to tear you down," Hickman exudes determination as a "tiger in a teacup town."
Particularly good is "Oh, Daddy," a song of reconciliation between father and daughter in which Hickman invokes, "Where did we go wrong? Let's throw out these ashes we've carried so long."
"Time Will Tell" is an exceptional song of introspection where "dancing with the devil's voice" conjures up the recommendation of "waltzing up to past mistakes/pour yourself some juice/too much thinking going on/shake these voices loose."
"Sister and Sam," "Room of One's Own" and "The Place Where the Garage Used to Be" are delightfully dusty perspectives of people and places - a nostalgic stream of folk expressionism. All with a sense of innocence lost.
"Necessary Angels" is not perfect. The melodies seem a little forced and in some cases nonexistent. But all that is easy to forgive the moment Sara Hickman's words tumble effortlessly through your social consciousness, lodging comfortably between the heart and brain.
RATINGS: four stars (* * * * ), excellent; three stars (* * * ), good; two stars (* * ), fair; one star (* ), poor, with 1/2 representing a higher, intermediate grade.