Mortal City
Encyclopedia
Mortal City is Dar Williams
Dar Williams
Dar Williams is an American singer-songwriter specializing in pop folk.She is a frequent performer at folk festivals and has toured with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, The Nields, Shawn Colvin, Girlyman, Joan Baez, and Catie Curtis.-Biography:Williams was born...

' second album, released in January 1996 by Razor & Tie
Razor & Tie
Razor & Tie is a New York-based corporation founded in 1990 by Cliff Chenfeld and Craig Balsam. The company encompasses a record label with major label distribution , a home video company, a media buying company, a music publishing business, a marketing, promotion and sales team, and a direct...

.

The songs "As Cool as I Am" and "The Christians and the Pagans" were released as singles in 1996; the former was also accompanied by a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

. Unlike Wiliams' previous album, The Honesty Room, which was entirely acoustic, Mortal City featured electric backup on a number of the album's songs, particularly "The Ocean" and "The Blessings".

Track listing

All songs by Dar Williams except as noted.
  1. "As Cool As I Am" – 3:35
  2. "February" – 3:51
  3. "Iowa (Travelling III)" – 4:46
  4. "The Christians and The Pagans" – 3:03
  5. "This Was Pompeii" – 3:53
  6. "The Ocean" – 5:16
  7. "Family" (Pierce Pettis
    Pierce Pettis
    - Biography :A former staff writer for PolyGram Publishing in Nashville, Pettis' musical career was started in 1979 when Joan Baez covered one of his songs, "Song at the End of the Movie", on her album Honest Lullaby...

    ) – 3:22
  8. "The Pointless, Yet Poignant, Crisis of a Co-Ed" – 3:12
  9. "The Blessings" – 3:50
  10. "Southern California Wants To Be Western New York" – 4:08
  11. "Mortal City" – 7:15

Personnel

  • Dar Williams
    Dar Williams
    Dar Williams is an American singer-songwriter specializing in pop folk.She is a frequent performer at folk festivals and has toured with such artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, The Nields, Shawn Colvin, Girlyman, Joan Baez, and Catie Curtis.-Biography:Williams was born...

     - vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

     (all tracks), guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

     (2-11)
  • William Galison
    William Galison
    William Galison is an American jazz musician, most famous as a harmonica player but also known as a multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer.-Early life and rise to fame:...

     - harmonica
    Harmonica
    The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

     (1), mandolin
    Mandolin
    A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

     (4)
  • Larry Campbell
    Larry Campbell (musician)
    Larry Campbell is a multi-instrumentalist who plays many stringed instruments in genres including country, folk, blues, and rock...

     - guitar (1,3,10), dobro
    Dobro
    Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...

     (3), fiddle
    Fiddle
    The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

     (7), mandolin (10)
  • Mark Egan
    Mark Egan
    Mark Egan is an American jazz bass guitarist and trumpeter, arguably best known for his membership in the Pat Metheny Group from 1977 to 1980, and the Gil Evans Orchestra...

     - bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

     (1)
  • Art Baron
    Art Baron
    Art Baron is an American jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, conch shell, penny-whistle, alto and bass recorder, and tuba.Baron is an alumnus of the Berklee College of Music...

     - digeridoo (1)
  • Sammy Merendino - rhythm texture
    Texture (music)
    In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...

    s (1)
  • Roger Squitero - bongos
    Bongo drum
    Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...

     (1)
  • Katryna Nields - vocals (1)
  • Nerissa Nields - vocals (1)
  • Erik Friedlander
    Erik Friedlander
    Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City.A veteran of NYC's experimental downtown scene, Friedlander has worked in many contexts, but is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with saxophonist/composer John Zorn...

     - cello
    Cello
    The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

     (2,11)
  • Cliff Eberhardt - vocals (3)
  • Lucy Kaplansky
    Lucy Kaplansky
    Lucy Kaplansky is an American folk musician based in New York City. Kaplansky also has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University.-Biography:...

     - vocals (4)
  • Zev Katz - bass (4,6,9)
  • Billy Ward - snare drum
    Snare drum
    The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...

     (4), drum
    Drum
    The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

    s (6,9)
  • Mark Shulman
    Mark Shulman
    Mark Shulman was born April 2, 1962 in Rochester, New York. He is an American children's author of over 100 books. He is the founder of Oomf, Inc....

     - electric guitar
    Electric guitar
    An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

     (5)
  • John Prine
    John Prine
    John Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...

     - vocals (6)
  • Jeff Golub
    Jeff Golub
    Jeff Golub is an American jazz guitarist.- Biography :Jeff Golub is a contemporary jazz guitarist with 11 solo albums and 3 CD's as the leader of the instrumental band "Avenue Blue"...

     - electric guitar (6,9)
  • Eileen Ivers
    Eileen Ivers
    Eileen Ivers is an Irish-American musician.Eileen Ivers was born in New York City of Irish-born parents and grew up in the Bronx. She spent summers in Ireland and took up the fiddle at the age of nine. Her teacher was the Irish fiddler Martin Mulvihill. She toured with Mick Moloney's band The...

     - fiddle
    Fiddle
    The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

     (6)
  • Gideon Freudmann
    Gideon Freudmann
    Gideon Freudmann, described as a "cross-genre cellist," coined the term cellobop to describe his music. His live performances feature improvisation and the use of loop-delay effects.-Discography:*Fellini's Martini *Cellobotomy...

     - cello (8)
  • Steve Gaboury - piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

     (11), textures
    Texture (music)
    In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...

    (11)

External links

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