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To All We Stretch the Open Arm

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Released
  
2004

Producer
  
Pat Maley, Ed Varga

Artist
  
Mirah

Label
  
YoYo

Length
  
38:09

To All We Stretch the Open Arm (2004)
  
C'mon Miracle (2004)

Release date
  
2004

Genre
  
Indie rock

To All We Stretch the Open Arm httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb3

Recorded
  
Seattle, Washington, January 2003

Similar
  
Songs from the Black Mountain, The Old Days Feeling, (a)spera, You Think It's Like This but, C'mon Miracle

To All We Stretch the Open Arm is a collection of political songs by a variety of songwriters, performed by Mirah and the Black Cat Orchestra. It met with a positive review in Allmusic and mixed review from Pitchfork.

Contents

Production

The album was produced by Pat Maley and Ed Varga, and recorded in early 2003 in Seattle, Washington. Mirah and the orchestra cover songs by artists such as Fausto Amodei, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Kurt Weill, Bertholt Brecht, Horacio Guarany, and Stephen Foster, and also cover several original songs by Mirah as well. It was released on Yoyo Records in 2004.

Reception

It met with a positive review in Allmusic and mixed review from Pitchfork. According to Allmusic, "While the album certainly addresses war and oppression with an appropriately somber tone (especially on Cohen's "Story of Isaac" and the sweetly earnest reading of Foster's "Hard Times"), To All We Stretch the Open Arm doesn't lose sight of how important passion and wit are to any good protest."

Track listing

  1. "Per I Morti [di] Reggio Emilia" (Fausto Amodei) – 2:30 (Instrumental)
  2. "Monument" (Mirah) – 3:40
  3. "Dear Landlord" (Bob Dylan) – 3:25
  4. "Story of Isaac" (Leonard Cohen) – 4:09
  5. "The Light"(Mirah) – 4:10
  6. "What Keeps Mankind Alive?"(Kurt Weill/Bertholt Brecht) – 3:15
  7. "How Sweetly Friendship Binds" (Kurt Weill/Paul Green) – 1:47
  8. "Si Me Quieres Escribir" (Anonymous)– 2:48
  9. "Si Se Calla el Cantor" (Horacio Guarany) – 3:16
  10. "Hard Times (Come Again No More)" (Stephen Foster) – 4:02
  11. "El Cant Dels Ocells" (Anonymous) – 2:58
  12. "Bella Ciao" (Anonymous) – 2:01

Personnel

  • Mirah - primary artist
  • Black Cat Orchestra - instrumentals
  • Ed Varga - producer
  • Pat Maley - producer
  • Songs

    1Per i morti di Reggio Emilia2:30
    2Monument3:41
    3Dear Landlord3:26

    References

    To All We Stretch the Open Arm Wikipedia