Edith Frost Preview

Edith Frost
Old Town School Of Folk Music, Chicago
Saturday, April 15, 2006

Edith Frost’s disappearance from recording studios after 2001’s Wonder, Wonder (Drag City) was much like Built To Spill’s: unexpected. Frost, who had quietly built a substantial three-album catalog for the label, always swam with some big, creative fishies — Will Oldham, Royal Trux, Steve Albini — just decided she needed a break.

You wouldn’t know she had gone based on last fall’s It’s A Game, although it gave critics opportunity to lazily call her songwriting “refreshed.” Phooey! While 1998’s Telescopic might have been a sidestep into studio experimentation, the segue from Wonder to Game is seamless. “What’s The Use” asks “Where did I go wrong in my thinking?”, and the only possible answer to that is how she surrounds herself with esteemed characters (Max Crawford, Rian Murphy, Azita, John Hasbrouck, the suddenly ubiquitous Emmett Kelly), depriving herself of full credit she deserves. In any sense, *Game* finds her at full strength be it the Patsy-does-Memphis charm in “A Mirage,” the title track’s resigned dejection, and the teenage crush of “Lovin’ You Goodbye.”

The Zincs will open.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly