Details
Track Listing
1. 23rd Street Lullaby
2. You Can't Go Back
3. Rose
4. City Boys
5. Love (Stand up)
6. Yesterday's Child
7. Stumbling to Bethlehem
8. Each Other's Medicine
9. Romeo
10. State of Grace
11. Chelsea Avenue
12. Young in the City
Album Notes
Initial release includes a bonus disc with 3 live tracks.
Personnel: Patti Scialfa (vocals, recorder, harpsichord, harmonium, field organ, Hammond b-3 organ, keyboards); Nils Lofgren (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric 12-string guitar, lap steel guitar, dobro, mandolin, bass guitar); Marc Ribot (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, baritone guitar, nylon-string guitar, dobro, tres, banjo); Bobby Bandiera (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Larry Campbell (electric guitar, cittern); Bruce Springsteen (electric guitar, keyboards); Soozie Tyrell (violin, background vocals); Jane Scarpantoni (cello); Clifford Carter (piano, Wurlitzer piano, field organ, Hammond b-3 organ, Mellotron, keyboards); John Medeski (piano); Greg Cohen (double bass); Steve Jordan (bass guitar, drums, percussion, loops, background vocals); Will Lee, Willie Weeks (bass guitar); Lisa Lowell, Antoinette Moore, Michelle Moore, Tiffeny Andrews (background vocals).
Recording information: The Yellow House, New York, New York.
Ignoring the fact that Patti Scialfa is married to Bruce Springsteen, it's easy to hear the musical cache she brings to the table, particularly within the confines of 23RD STREET LULLABY, her second album in over a decade. Scialfa uses her days spent as a struggling New York City musician in the late 1970s and early '80s for inspiration, and rang up a few buddies from back in that time of her life. Among the best-known names who contributed to these sessions are co-producer Steve Jordan, James Taylor sideman Clifford Carter, and fiddler/vocalist Soozie Tyrell, who is also a member of Springsteen's touring band.
The result is a batch of loosely autobiographical tales that hearkens back to that era's class of gritty urban singer-songwriters, including Graham Parker, Garland Jeffreys, and Lou Reed. Reminiscing about her days in the Chelsea section of Manhattan (see the atmospheric title cut), Scialfa writes about bad seeds (a twangy "City Boys"), fun-seeking waitresses (the doo-wop harmony-laden "Rose"), and grease monkeys (a wistful "Chelsea Avenue"). Sure, the characters that populate these songs are similar to those created by her husband (who unobtrusively contributes guitar and keyboards), but what do you expect from a native Jersey girl?
Industry Reviews
3 stars out of 5 - Like a quieter, more thoughtful Sheryl Crow, Scialfa is a daughter of the city and her charms reveal themselves slowly.
[T]here's an inviting, appealing earnestness to Scialfa's bruised-soul folk rock. - Grade: B+
Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Records Of 2004 - Scialfa connects to her past with well-wrought, down-to-earth tunes.
4 stars out of 5 - [A] sweeter, more confident effort....Sophisticated pop that frames Scialfa as a jaunty, East Coast version of Rickie Lee Jones or Bonnie Raitt.
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