Description
Wounded Me, Wounded You is the fifth full-length studio album by the American singer and songwriter Jan Krist, independently released on Outpost Records in 2002, a custom label formed by Jan Krist and her husband Alan Finkbeiner. Manufactured by Silent Planet Records.
Detroit, Michigan, is cold and grey in the winter. There are many burnt out, abandoned buildings along Michigan Ave, the city’s budget has been mishandled, and the casinos are the city’s largest attraction. Even the Major League baseball team is depressing. Yet, there is a undeniable human spirit within Detroit that makes the town’s natives proud when asked where they are from. In this sense, Detroit has a spokesperson in Jan Krist. For years, Krist has been gracing audiences with her articulate brand of folk music, replete with her unassuming manner and engaging stories of grace and the human spirit.
The latest offering from Krist, Wounded Me Wounded You, explores the human heart and the relationships we build and re-build in a fallen world. The first song on the disc, «St. John Reads the 21st Century Want Ads», asks how we are to love those whose ideas of love have been all-too informed by the ways of the modern world. St. John responds, “I’m doing my best to do my best/ the best that I can do/ the best thing I can do right now is love.”
The title track, co-written by Tim Diaz, reveals the blue-collar environment of Krist’s native Detroit, even when dealing with issues of the heart: “Was your heart built on a Friday/ by some lost assembly line?” Musically, the song is reminiscent of «Put Her to the Test», from Krist’s 1996 album, Wing and a Prayer.
«Blessed Are They» is straight out of the Beatitudes. With September 11 still fresh in our memories, the song takes on a deep significance, as Krist sings, “Blessed are the missing/ blessed are the lame/ blessed are the ones we lost the day the locust came/ blessed is the hole that’s left and blessed are the souls/ of all the numb and grieving that will not be consoled.” The vocal chorus on this tune includes Krist’s husband Alan Finkbeiner, Mike Krist, and Maggie Shultz.
Krist’s lyrical talent shines even when writing a song full of platitudes. The liner notes of the aptly named «Cliche» tell us that Krist and cohort Jim Bizer wanted to write a love song. Instead of trying to avoid often-used metaphors and similes to describe love, Krist feeds us spoonfuls of cliches without apologizing. We sense she’s winking at us as she sings, “Sweeter than honey then weak in the knees / and all of that junk about birds and the bees and anyway…”
The album’s centerpiece, «State of Sin», was written in response to Pierce Pettis’ «State of Grace», which details his life growing up in the south with the gospel abundant everywhere. In the liner notes Krist explains, “It’s different here in the north…[t]he northern culture is more economical about its expressions of faith. Not that faith isn’t part of our daily landscape or culture, it’s just different.”
«That’s the Day I Fall», a beatnik, Cockburn-esque tune, is a song about surrendering to grace. Krist borrows images from C. S. Lewis for this song. The last song, «Dressed to Kill», is a bluesy barnstormer. Thematically, Mark Heard fans will be reminded of «Big Wheels Roll»: “Roll over, roll over I am fixin’ to just play through/ Big plans, big clubs, big deals that don’t include you/ I want you off the land I want you off the air/ want you stuck in some ghetto or some vacuum somewhere.”
Wounded Me Wounded You is a fine effort from Krist. It is ten songs of failure and grace as seen from the perspective of a mid-western soul. As her fans have come to expect, Krist’s lyrical intelligence and comfortable delivery make this album worthy of repeated listens. [Dave Kerschbaum, The Phantom Tollbooth, 8/4/2002]
CD tracklist:
01. St. John Reads The 21st Century Want Ads
02. Wounded Me Wounded You
03. Blessed Are They
04. Simple Truth
05. Cliche
06. Judgement Day
07. State Of Sin
08. Walk Away Renee
09. That’s The Day I Fall
10. Dressed To Kill
Note: Also released featuring two bonus tracks; “Let’s Not Be Strangers” and “Where the Lost Seek the Lost”.
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