This Side of Paradise (Nigel Parry album)

This Side of Paradise contains nine tracks of original material spanning a decade of songwriting by Nigel Parry. Six tracks were recorded live at the Black Dog Coffee Bar in St. Paul, Minnesota., on 16 January 1999, one from the Hair of the Dog Art Gallery in St. Paul, Minnesota., on 24 April 1999. Two home-taped tracks are on the album, from 1995 and 1998.

Nigel Parry is an activist known for his new media/Internet work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq war, and was awarded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's Voices of Peace award in 2003. The award was presented to the Electronic Intifada and Electronic Iraq websites he cofounded "in recognition of its commitment to bringing the concerns, voices, and experiences of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples to audiences the world over via the Internet." [EI "Voices of Peace" acceptance speech at ADC conference, The Electronic Intifada, 19 June 2003 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1629.shtml]

The album is significant in that much of the material was written in the Palestinian West Bank, and the lyrical content therefore deals with the conflict. Unlike the movement to end Apartheid in South Africa, which saw many chart-topping, major label artists penning songs that addressed the obvious inequalities between black and white South Africans--including U2, Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel, Little Stevens, and Eddy Grant to name a few--the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a lyrical focus has remained mostly untouched by the singer-songwriter community.

The album was originally distributed by the original incarnation of MP3.com, who went out of business in 2003. The album is currently available as a free download at thissideofparadise.org 1.

Album description from thissideofparadise.org: "Although it's not unusual for singer-songwriters to travel around the world, Nigel Parry has lived in some pretty strange and scattered parts of the world. Nigel lived from 1994 to 1998 in the Palestinian West Bank, and the intensity and beauty of the music that these places have squeezed out of this unsigned musician is rare. Haunting tunes, multi-layered lyrics, and boiling emotion are just part of this Scottish singer-songwriter's presentation."

Track listing

  • "Land of the Shadow" [7:28]
  • "This Side of Paradise" [7:08]
  • "Stage" [3:30]
  • "Julia Roberts' Smile" [5:16]
  • "Black & Blue" [6:30]
  • "Too Many Thoughts" [5:45]
  • "See How Both of You Will Fly" [8:11]
  • "Elapse" [5:35]
  • "Forget" [7:25]

Reviews

  • New Internationalist magazine "...a disc whose recommendation is its deftly managed intensity"
  • Lydia Howell, KFAI Radio, 90.3/106.7FM, Twin Cities, Minnesota "Deeply moving songs... With quiet intensity, Parry gives voice to this 'invisible people' living under siege."