Richard Shindell’s Movies of the Mind

Richard Shindell
“Blue Divide”
Shanachie Records
1994

Early on, New York-raised Richard Shindell established himself as a contemplative and gifted songwriter. He was never in better form than on his 1994 sophomore release “Blue Divide.” Over its ten tracks, he paints vivid portraits of what it means to be human, from our loves, deceits, pride, lust, nobility, cowardice, and occasionally redemption.

The album opens with “A Summer Wind, A Cotton Dress,” a reminiscence of unattainable love. Next, “Fishing” takes us inside the mind of an immigration officer as he interrogates his captive. Time has only made this song more poignant in the current age of daily headlines recounting ICE agents’ callousness and inhumanity to man.

“The Ballad of Mary Magdalen” imagines the biblical figure’s feelings for Jesus, first as a man and then as a deity. “Lazy” celebrates a lighthearted moment of savoring quiet domesticity.

In “The Things I Have Seen,” optimistic patriotism collides with disillusionment after the speaker witnesses battle firsthand. The speaker bears the wounds that the world seems never to tire of probing. The Civil War companion piece “Arrowhead” is told from the perspective of a Confederate drummer boy.

Shindell’s movies of the mind next take us inside prison walls, where a condemned man contemplates the hereafter as he bears the weight of his life’s choices in “Ascent.” The album fittingly closes with the title track, leaving a sense of restlessness and a glimmer of hope.

The band lineup for this project includes Richard Shindell on vocals and acoustic guitar, Steve Addabbo on Hammond organ and electric guitar, Kenneth Blevins on drums, Larry Campbell on lap steel, pedal steel and mandolin, Séamus Egan on mandolin and uilleann pipes, Peter Freeman on synthesizer, Mark Hamza on Hammond organ, Lucy Kaplansky on harmony, Juan Patiño on percussion, Dave Richards and Michael Visceglia on bass, and John Whelan on button accordion. 

Richard Shindell is among the most talented storytellers of our time and deserves a much larger audience. His other noteworthy albums include “Sparrows Point,” “Somewhere Near Paterson,” and “Reunion Hill.”