From: "Doug Bright" <75366.2463@compuserve.com> To: Subject: Article: April, 1982 Date: Saturday, October 15, 2005 7:14 PM APRIL, 1982 GWEN GUNDERSON: HOMETOWN GIRL MAKES GOOD By Doug Bright It happened nearly thirteen years ago, but it was one of those rare and unforgettable experiences. The occasion was the Anacortes Arts and Crafts Festival, an event held every year on the first weekend in August. It was the best-paid folksinging gig I've ever played, but that wasn't what made the event so memorable. The special part was the beautiful, sensitive young artist with whom I shared the performance. Her name was Gwen Gunderson. During the course of that Saturday, I listened to her dynamic interpretations of everything from Joni Mitchell to traditional blues and spirituals. That evening the festival organizers with whom I was staying invited Gwen over for a music session. We were up very late that night sharing our deepest and most intimate feelings through the medium of our music. It was an experience of total communication, of seeing into the soul of another human being and in turn being seen--the kind of experience that life grants so sparingly that most of us never know it at all. I didn't see Gwen for many years after that memorable musical weekend, but the encounter made a deep impression on me, and I can safely say the same for her. With all this in mind, you can imagine my excitement when she wrote to me last summer to inform me that she had moved to southern California and produced an album of original songs. The cassette album, CHAPTER TO MY LIFE AND OTHER SONGS, fully justified my excitement. Some albums are nothing more than just albums. Then there are those that earn the title of "concept album". A concept album is one whose material is united by a common theme or idea. The underlying concept of SERGEANT PEPPER, for example, is the sociocultural alienation of young people and the subculture they create as an alternative. The concept of the WAYLON AND WILLIE album is the cowboy outlaw personality. The theme of Gwen Gunderson's new album is simply Gwen Gunderson herself. From a purely musical point of view, Gwen has broadened her horizons a little since that unforgettable music festival in 1969, but the new influences have only served to augment her original warmth and expressiveness. A few songs are accompanied only with guitar in the classic folksinging mode. A few others demonstrate a new direction in Gwen's music: a very tasteful experiment with jazz-rock. Most of the songs, however, are arranged in Gwen's familiar, penetrating folk style sensitively orchestrated by a few extremely competent studio musicians. The refreshing thing about Gwen as a songwriter is that she consistently avoids the trap that has caught almost all of her contemporaries in the modern folk field. While others use melody lines that would freak out a French absurdist, Gwen writes melodies as eloquently direct as the lyrics they complement. While other composers are smothering in their own cosmic symbolism, Gwen writes songs about real life and real human emotions. These songs touch on everything from loneliness and fulfillment to social satire. The subject of marriage and the other woman, for example, has occupied country music for years, but "Love With A Man Who Is Taken" treats it with rare depth and introspection. "You Showed Me The Sun In Your Sky", also mildly country, is as unforgettable as Judy Collins' "Thirsty Boots" and for all the same reasons. "Nina" is a fascinating portrait of a self-absorbed ballerina and the secret love of a rather ordinary admirer. "The Healer", on the other hand, is an ironic and perceptive close-up of commercialized religion. "Hot Tub Song" is a hilarious spoof on the shallow experiencialism of the stereotyped Southern California lifestyle. With their amazing diversity of mood and subject, the songs on this album have been masterfully engineered and assembled. The result is a vivid picture of a vibrant and many-faceted personality. In summary, then, CHAPTER TO MY LIFE is more than just an album: it's a complete musical and psychological self-portrait. If you don't yet know Gwen Gunderson, this album will make you feel as if you do. If you're one of those fortunate enough to have known and admired Gwen for years, you're sure to agree with me that this album is not merely a chapter in her life: it's the whole novel. ----------------------------------------