Cry Cry Cry
When three of our finest singer/songwriters join together in a musicalménage à trois, the least they could do is sing their own material. Yet Richard Shindell, Dar Williams, and Lucy Kaplansky have pulled off a perfect, perverse triumph onCry Cry Cry, a tribute to fellow tunesmiths from Robert Earl Keen to Greg Brown to Julie Miller. Though the disc begins with a bona fide chart buster, R.E.M.'s "Fall on Me" (with ringing guitars and astonishingly audible lyrics no less), most of the cuts come from such unsung artists as James Keelaghan (a dark, brilliant ballad inspired by Norman MacLean'sYoung Men and Fire) and Jim Armenti. All three members of this folk music dream team are in excellent voice, alternating ensemble pieces with honed call-and-response. Yet these polished, hush-inducing performances never lose their edge and urgency--this isreallywhat they mean by harmonic convergence.--Kerry Fried