Published on Mar 3, 1999
You’ve probably never heard of Fred Small, which is a shame. A
man who Pete Seeger has called “one of America’s best songwriters”,
his sporadic and low-key career has stretched across three record
labels and seventeen years; despite my fondness for his work, I’ve
only managed to locate two of his six extant CDs. His music is
brilliant, heart-felt, and touching, emotional without being
manipulative, and his single voice asking for diversity and
understanding is seemingly cynic-proof.
A former Phi Beta Kappa at Yale and the holder of a law degree
from the University of Michigan, Small quit law in 1980 in order to
concentrate on his music career. In 1996, he entered Harvard
Divinity School to become a Unitarian Minister. In between, he
committed to CD some of the best folk music around, and
Everything Possible documents both how good the music was
and how well his audience responded.
Small has two distinct voices. The satirist and humourist comes
out to play on “Hot Frogs On The Loose” and “The Marine’s Lament:
Or The Pink Peril”, and his sense of humour is devastatingly biting
and deeply amusing. The spoken interlude on “The Hug Song” turns a
Raffiesque children’s song into an interesting commentary on our
society. But on another level, Small is a balladeer, a bard,
pointing out injustice and wrong in the tradition of Tom Paxton and
Phil Ochs. The disk’s opening track, “Guinevere And The Fire” is a
haunting, gut-twisting indictment of racism, “Too Many People”
starts out funny then turns serious on the subject of
overpopulation, and “Smile When You’re Ready” is a bittersweet
advisory for those growing up misfit. The title track is a touching
lullaby to a child who needs to hear that whatever they do in life
is all right, and the spoken intro (“This is a song no one ever
sang to me as I was growing up”) made me use it as a lullaby for my
children. Sure, sometimes he becomes a touch too saccharine,
especially on “Friends First” and “Rodney King’s Blessing”, but his
clear voice and honest emotion at least means -he- believes
everything he says, and in protest music that’s nine-tenths of the
battle.
Two special notes have to be made in closing. One, this is the
best sounding live disc I’ve -ever- heard; you’re right there, and
the crowd sound is clear without being overpowering. Kudos to small
Chicago label Flying Fish for the marvelous sound. Two, “The Other
Side Of The Wood”, track four on the CD, is magnificent. I can’t
say anything else, just listen to it yourself.
You may have trouble tracking Fred Small down. Make the effort;
he is one of the best songwriters out there today, and is the
worthy heir of a long tradition of guitars and messages.
“You can be anybody you want to be, you can love whomever you
will, You can travel any country where your heart leads, and know I
will love you still, You can live by yourself, you can gather
friends around you, you can choose one special one,” And the only
measure of your words and deeds Will be the love you leave behind
when you’re done…”
–“Everything Possible”, Fred Small