''Courier'' is the first live recording and sixth album by

Richard Shindell Richard Shindell (born August 3, 1960) is an American Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, producer, and musician. Shindell grew up in Port Washington, New York, Port Washington, New York, and now lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his wife ...

. It includes many of his most popular originals from previous recordings, a cover of

Lowell George Lowell Thomas George (April 13, 1945 – June 29, 1979) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He was the primary guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the rock band Little Feat. Before forming Little ...

's classic song, "Willin'", and what has been described as a "near-holy reading" of

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

's " Fourth of July, Asbury Park".Jeff Schwatcher,

Review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

at the ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'' (4.5/5)

Signature Sounds Signature Sounds Recordings is an independent record label specializing in Americana (music), Americana and modern folk music. Jim Olsen and Mark Thayer founded the label in 1995 to promote acoustic musicians who were playing in Northampton, Massa ...

also offered a limited number of bonus EP's titled ''The Sonora Sessions'', which included an additional seven tracks.

''Courier''

Track listing

All songs written by Richard Shindell, except where noted. #"The Courier" 4:51 #"Memory of You" – 4:28 #"Next Best Western" – 4:17 #"Willin'" (

) – 3:15 #"The Kenworth of My Dreams" – 4:05 #"Nora" – 4:42 #"Arrowhead" – 5:07 #"Reunion Hill" – 4:24 #"Fishing" – 4:33 #"A Summer Wind, A Cotton Dress" – 4:04 #"On a Sea of Fleur de Lis" – 4:47 #"The Ballad of Mary Magdalen" – 5:11 #"Are You Happy Now?" – 4:10 #"Transit" – 7:32 #" Fourth of July, Asbury Park" (

) – 6:35 Recorded by Ben Wisch and Ron Schreier at the

Emelin Theatre The Emelin Theatre for the Performing Arts is a 264-seat nonprofit theater located in Mamaroneck, NY. that hosts theatre, family, bluegrass, dance, classical, jazz, rock, folk, tribute, and comedy events, plus a broad range of independent and con ...

( Mamaroneck, NY) 3/16 and 17, 2001. Tracks 3 and 11 recorded at the Outpost in the Burbs ( Montclair, NJ) on 2/2/01. Track 7 recorded at Bailey Building & Loan ( Greenwich Village, NYC). Mixed by Ben Wisch.

Personnel

Musicians:Courier
page at richardshindell.com *

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

Lucy Kaplansky Lucy Kaplansky (born February 16, 1960) is an American folk musician based in New York City. Kaplansky has a PhD in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University and plays guitar, mandolin, and piano. Life and career Kaplansky was originally fro ...

–

harmony vocals Vocal harmony is a style of vocal music in which a consonant note or notes are simultaneously sung as a main melody in a predominantly homophonic texture. Vocal harmonies are used in many subgenres of European art music, including Classical ...

Dennis McDermott Dennis McDermott (November 3, 1922 – February 13, 2003) was a Canadian trade unionist who served as Canadian Director of the United Auto Workers from 1968 to 1978 and president of the Canadian Labour Congress from 1978 to 1986. Born in Portsmou ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* John Putnam –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

tiple A tiple (, literally treble or soprano), is a particular type of guitar, typically with 10 or 12 strings but sometimes fewer, and is built in several distinct regional styles. A tiple player is called a ''tiplista''. The first written mention of ...

* Lincoln Schleifer –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

and on tracks 3 and 11: * Greg Anderson –

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

, guitar,

cittern The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...

* Lisa Gutkin –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

Radoslav Lorković Radoslav Lorković (born September 3, 1958) is a Croatian-born and classically trained folk and blues musician, known in particular for his flair on the piano and accordion. He has six solo studio recordings, three live albums and has recorded a ...

–

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

on "Reunion Hill" *

Larry Campbell Larry W. Campbell (born February 28, 1948) is a Canadian politician who was the 37th mayor of Vancouver, Canada, from 2002 until 2005, and a member of the Senate of Canada from 2005 until his retirement in 2023. Before he was mayor, Campbe ...

– violin Other credits: * David Glasser – Mastering * Toby Goldberg – Project Coordinator * Ron Schreier – Engineer, Live Recording Coordination *

Ben Wisch Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett, Benson or Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben meaning "son of" is also found in Arabic as ''Ben'' (dialectal Arabic) or ''bin ...

– Engineer, Mixing *

Carol Young Carol Young is an Australian musician, and a founding member of the American Bluegrass music, bluegrass band The Greencards. Biography Early life Young is originally from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Prior to the founding of The Greencards, ...

– Project Coordinator

''The Sonora Sessions''

Track listing

#"Confession" – 5:00 #"Abeulita" – 4:08 #"You Stay Here" – 5:00 #"Wisteria" – 5:23 #"Johnny Star Intro" – 0:42 #"

Sonora's Death Row "Sonora’s Death Row" is a story song written by California songwriter Kevin "Blackie" Farrell and published by Drifter Music/Bug Music ( BMI)''Sing Out!'', Vol. 39 #4, p. 86, Spring 1995 (seSing Out! index.The early Leo Kottke recording lists the ...

" (Kevin Blackie Farrell) – 4:19 #"Sonora's Death Row II" – 3:15

Notes and references

{{Authority control Richard Shindell albums 2002 live albums