There's an extent to
which this is going to be at least as much a declaration of love as a review,
because there are a couple of things about Cannonball Jane that really turn me
on: The charming and polished 4-track simplicity of the recording and Jane's
(AKA Sharon Hagopian) gifts.
Street Vernacular is most successful when Jane/Sharon is creating musical environments to give her songs a home, her constructs of material sounding like someone who's been left alone in the musical museum overnight. And I mean that as a good thing. Her best songs, "Slumber Party" and "Fine Reminder," have an enchanting quality that sounds like butterflies flying in formation. (Don't tell me that wouldn't make any sound, this is exactly what it would sound like.) ...