{"id":920,"date":"2009-03-17T08:45:23","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T13:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hightwo.com\/ht\/?p=920"},"modified":"2009-03-17T08:45:23","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T13:45:23","slug":"reviews-cynthia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-cynthia\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews – Cynthia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Michael Pelusi
\nSource: <\/span><\/span>Philadelphia City Paper<\/strong> Thursday, January 11, 2001<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c…While songwriting can be a potentially frustrating waiting game, fortunately Mason\u2019s been patient, honing her share of gems. Her early work was recorded solo on her home four-track and released on two cassettes\u2014Untitled (1996) and Critical Neighborhood Map (1998)\u2014on her label, Spiderwoman Records. She was pretty wary about working with other musicians…However, once she started hanging out at Soundgun Studio at the behest of one of the owners, her friend Edan Cohen, Mason changed her tune…Whatever diffidence she once felt toward adding other players, you\u2019ll find few traces of it now. The resulting self-titled, Cohen-produced album is an exquisitely arranged affair, from the precise folk-rock backing on \u201cMeasure\u201d to the unsettled string section on \u201cWit\u2019s End\u201d…Live the songs take on yet another new life. Among the musicians recruited for the album was Chris Powell, who in turn introduced Mason to Larry Brown and
\nChris Reggiani. All three are also members of Need New Body, and you can just see the standard press blurb: Acoustic guitar-strummin\u2019 songstress…joins forces with three-fifths of an art-jazz-rock freak-out troupe. But that\u2019s a bit reductive when it comes to this group. Why accentuate polarities when they make music that sounds so natural? Their supple renditions of \u201cSubtle Things\u201d and \u201cFor a Living\u201d\u2014with Reggiani\u2019s sturdy bass, Brown\u2019s subtle guitar colorings and Powell\u2019s inventive, quietly urgent percussion\u2014underline the restless, even angry emotions that lurk in Mason\u2019s songs. \u2018We pretty much took the tunes and just arranged them for a live setting,\u2019 says Brown, \u2018And that\u2019s something I think is a really great achievement. You come up with an album like that with great string arrangements, percussion, and computer effects and then take it and re-do it all over again for the sake of playing live. With these guys, with Chris, Chris, and Cynthia, we could probably do it again. Just for the fun of it.\u2019\u201d…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Michael Pelusi Source: Philadelphia City Paper Thursday, January 11, 2001 \u201c…While songwriting can be a potentially frustrating waiting game, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[47,67,70,50,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-cynthia-g-mason","category-ht010","category-releases","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","acf":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":926,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/926-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":920,"position":0},"title":"Reviews – Cynthia","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Sara Sherr Source: The Philadelphia Daily News, Yo! Features Local singer-songwriter Cynthia G. Mason has been a fixture on the indie rock scene since the mid-'90s, when she started putting out cassette-only recordings on her own label, Spiderwoman Records. The 32-year-old West Philly native is gentle enough for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":125,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/ht010\/","url_meta":{"origin":920,"position":1},"title":"Cynthia G. Mason: Quitter’s Claim","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"January 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"[download#1#nohits] [download#1#image] Evergreen Breaks the Drill Fits and Starts Thrown Claim To & Fro Nerve The Way the Morning Came Quit While You're Misled Cynthia G. Mason \u2013 vocals, guitar Larry D. Brown \u2013 guitar, vocals, harmonica All songs by Cynthia G. Mason Engineered and mixed by Larry D. Brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cynthia G. Mason - Quitter's Claim","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/ht010.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":923,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-cynthia-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":920,"position":2},"title":"Reviews – Cynthia","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Brian Howard Source: Philadelphia City Paper For Cynthia G. Mason, it was a matter of if, not when. After a string of cassette-only releases, the singer-songwriter with the rhythmically droning guitar figures, haunting voice and bewitchingly abstract lyrics, released her first CD in 2000. The eponymous seven-song collection on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":698,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/cynthia-g-masons-quitters-claim-out-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":920,"position":3},"title":"Cynthia G Mason’s Quitter’s Claim out now","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"January 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Quitter's Claim, the first release by Cynthia G. Mason on High Two, is now available in the STORE. Out nationwide today, January 23, the CD is available for $10 through January 31; afterwards it will be $13. Plus Cynthia will be playing at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on Friday,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.com\/htwo\/images\/albums\/ht010.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":676,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/high-two-to-release-new-cynthia-g-mason-album-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":920,"position":4},"title":"High Two to release new Cynthia G. Mason album!","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"October 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We are super-psyched to announce that High Two will be releasing the new album acclaimed singer\/songwriter Cynthia G. Mason. Her self-released albums have earned her all sorts of acclaim and her new album, Quitter's Claim, picks up were those left off. Joined by guitarist Larry D. Brown, Cynthia's new songs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4333,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/high-two-to-release-new-cynthia-g-mason-album\/","url_meta":{"origin":920,"position":5},"title":"High Two to release new Cynthia G. Mason album","author":"admin","date":"November 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"High Two is proud to announce that our next release will come from singer-songwriter Cynthia G. Mason. After much acclaim and a long layoff, Cynthia is back with her first national release, Quitter's Claim, which will be released by High Two on January 23, 2007. Her CD release show is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}