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The codified lyrics and raw emotion of Meredith Fierke, granddaughter of a nuclear physicist from Oppenheimer’s core, kicks the stool out from under the post-modern idea of a coalminer’s singer/songwriter. Fierke’s impressionistic songwriting dares the listener to make sense of the few shapes in dim twilight, calling up a mix of alternative, rock, and old-world murder ballads. Known for a powerful elegance both sonically austere and viscerally arresting, she mesmerizes audiences delivering a seductive vocal that often trends low, reminiscent of the Cowboy Junkies’ “Sweet Jane.” From this darkness emerges a fiercely independent artist.

Well-heeled in the Minneapolis music scene Meredith has performed in such places as The Acadia Café, The Varsity Theater, The Loring Pasta Bar, The Uptown Bar and Grill, The Anodyne Coffee Shop, 4th St. Station (St. Paul) in addition to her countless home-town shows. She has recorded with engineers Joey Heines (Ozark and Asher) and Andre LaSalle (Decay) at Pachyderm Studio and studio owner/engineer Paul Marino of Xeojax Production Studios (Chris Koza, The New Congress, Alicia Wiley). Her debut solo album “The Procession” is scheduled for release this summer.

Notes Notes Notes….

I have been working for at least 8 months with Paul Marino of Xeojax Production Studios. At first, I went to him with this idea that I would just play some guitar and sing some little ditties and that would be that. Well, it would seem that the monster has gotten away from us (I should have expected this). I am so grateful, too, because Paul has taken on the role of not only a sound engineer but he is basically co-producing this thing (he should have expected that!) and it is turning into this wonderful conglomeration of oddity that neither of us realized at the onset. I must say that I am truly amazed by this process. That aside, this will be what I call my first “album” as I refer to everything preceding as simply “recordings.” I have narrowed down the titles quite a bit, the one I most prefer is THE PROCESSION, having to do with a song I wrote by the same name. I think it embodies many of the themes running through the album, some of them playing with ideas such as death, images of water, self-contemplation, (blah, blah, blah) and yes, and there might be SOME reference to love but I try to keep that aspect abbreviated if at all possible. All of these things are looked at in a way that is hopefully, well, hopeful.

I must say that I write in a way that is focused more on imagery rather than taking words for their literal implications. A good example of this would be the song titled SAD HORSE BONES, of which I realize makes absolutely no sense. But for the purpose of trying to present an image of destitution I could only imagine a bony, emaciated horse with it’s head hung low to the ground. This image does have meaning, then, when coupled with the rest of the song about how negative thinking can “drag you down.” Here are the lyrics:

Your sad horse bones are keeping me down/Face drawn and low what is it about you?/
The I to never be/This town you’ll never leave/Soleil, Soleil
I’m watching you drown

And there, again, is the image of drowning…

So there you have a small glimpse of what is to come. I did enjoy writing about it so perhaps I will do it again soon. If you would like to take a listen to some of the things Paul and I have been working on, please visit www.myspace.com/meredithfierke