The Album Thing: Ferron, Phantom Center

The album thing! (If you don’t know what I’m doing, look at some of the previous posts.)

Phantom Center is another album that came into my life at a time when I needed to hear the things it said. (By the way, the photo is of the cover of the original version of this CD. I guess it’s a collector’s item now. The remake version of Phantom Center is used in my links below.)

“Stand Up” (yeah, that’s the Indigo Girls doing supporting vocals)

“The Cart” is one of Ferron’s best songs, I think, which automatically makes it one of the best songs ever. The “wheel,” of course, is metaphorical. (Like, Buddhism.)

“Sunken City” is an amazing song, too. Whoa, nelly, watch it build. “Some things just pull so strong, like the map of the sky is the map of your heart” . . . “Let’s go on a hunch and give this a name.”

If you’ve never heard of Ferron, I feel sorry for you. That’s like never having heard of Leonard Cohen. “Our Purpose Here” is one of her earlier masterpieces (from another album).

Ferron’s best songs have some trace of darkness (which she can have in abundance; for example, see “White Wing Mercy” from Phantom Center). Here’s the (autobiographical) title track from her album Shadows on a Dime. Another masterpiece. Like Joni Mitchell, she’s a poet first.

Finally, if you don’t care for Ferron’s voice, listen to what others can do with her songs. Here’s an example.