a sara hickman motherlode update for june 14, 2006

Dear Super Pals,

Can you feel the excitement? This is the week! The big week when MOTHERLODE is born!

Here are just some of the festivities planned, as more are confirmed we'll post them on the website just for you! (http://www.sarahickman.com/shows)

This Friday, June 16 at 12pm CT
Another great radio appearance with Sara and the band, this time on KUT 90.5. Live streaming available on the web at http://www.kut.org.

Super Pal Summer Kickoff, This Saturday at 9:30am
The morning will start off with fun at BIG RED SUN with a children's show by none other than yours truly...So, you can have a full day of Saranading....!!! 9:30 am... two more shows in July and August, for a great Super Pal Summer! We're gonna fly high on super songs with Super Sara at the Super Pal Universe, with stories, breakfast, and lots of fun!
Download the Super Pal poster here.

The Official CD Release Party, This Saturday at 9:30pm
I'd like to personally invite each of you to come to our cd release party on June 17th at RUTA MAYA, Austin, Tx....with full band! We will have cds at the party, (so you can get one 3 days before they arrive in stores!) and we are more than happy to decorate them for you with our love and happiness! 9 pm... tickets only $10, available at the door. Check out http://www.rutamaya.net for more info!

The Official CD Store Party, This Tuesday at 5:00pm
The big day has arrived, and Sara will be on-hand at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas to celebrate the national release of Motherlode! Free music, free beer, and your chance to pick up a copy of Motherlode on it's birth day! Info and directions at http://www.waterloorecords.com/

More Radio Fun
Catch Sara on "Art of the Song: Creativity Radio" this coming week on more than 50 stations across the country -- find a local airtime or listen on the web at http://artofthesong.org/.

Serenity Now... or at least, next Friday
The North Texas screening of Joss Whedon's 'Serenity' will be held at midnight on Friday, 23 June, at the Studio Movie Grill in Addison. (That's Friday night / Saturday morning, for those keeping score.) Tickets are $10 in advance*, and $12 at the door. (We highly recommend buying tickets in advance from http://Serenity.TheAmigos.net , as we have every indication this event will sell out.)

The screening is part of the Serenity Now / Equality Now global event, which benefits Equality Now, a non-profit organization that works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure.

Ticket holders are eligible to win door prizes from the event's promotional partners -- Movie Trading Company, Sci-Fi Expo, BenBella Books, FanDone.com, and DragonWeave Jewelry.

For details and advance tickets, go to http://Serenity.TheAmigos.net

Not available in stores!
Tee shirts for "Motherlode" are now available!!! Pick one up at a Sara Show or online at sarahickman.com/store.

Last Chance to Win a Golden Ticket
If you pre-order "Motherlode", 10 lucky winners will find a GOLDEN TICKET inside their order. The ticket invites you plus one person to a show for free entry and to meet with me (and the band, if they are with me at the time) before or after the show, where we will share our snacks and tales of the road! And you can tell us what's up with you in person!!! You can only find a Golden Ticket inside CDs purchased from The Connextion. Click "Store" on sarahickman.com.

As the CD hits the streets, Team Sara is asking for your help in getting out the word. Street Angels, we're looking for you! To learn how to earn your Street Angel wings, just visit http://www.sarahickman.com/community/angels.

Here's a new review from ThisIsTexasMusic.com...
To paraphrase a defunct automaker’s catch phrase, “This is not your toddler’s Sara Hickman!”

Hickman’s new double album, Motherlode, catches the prolific singer and writer of both adult and children’s songs in two distinctly grown-up moods: one quite desperate, the other more defiant.

Clearly, womanhood and motherhood, and the mud too often slung at both, weigh heavily and proximately on Hickman, who traditionally has smiled brightly from her album covers.

True, many of her previous outings were also bittersweet, often blending hope and despair, love and loss. This time out, however, despair and loss push more forcefully to the fore; but while hope and love are less readily apparent than usual, they remain forces nonetheless.

On disc one, The Mirror (Of Despair), Hickman juxtaposes biting lyrics against sweet music and well crafted musicianship to highlight the fate of women trapped in a misogynistic social prison. She critiques the status quo most effectively with an upbeat reading of the traditional The Wagoner’s Lad; an honest, achingly personal take on Tears for Fear’s Mad World; and her own self-affirming Comfort’s Sigh and My Mama’s Hands.

With disc two, The Thread (Of Happiness), Hickman leverages a set of (literally) more brassy songs to defy that patriarchal prison. Here, she broadens her musical palette with the funky, horn driven reggae of her own Two Days Today; the country-flavored blues of Amy Rigby’s Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?; the post-hip-hop R&B of Addison and Singh’s Enuf; the classic folk-rock of Peter Himmelman’s This Too Will Pass; and the soulful jazz of Dan Cohen’s paean to parenthood, Your Reward.

Despite occasional heavy-handed production/engineering/mixing values – for which Hickman as Producer must be held responsible – both discs share her deliciously versatile vocals, creative arrangements, and the support of a cadre of guest artists both local (including singer/songwriters Shawn Colvin and Kelly Willis) and national (including guitar guru Adrian Belew).

Motherlode documents Hickman’s reaction to a social minefield that should have been swept clean years ago. With well crafted and chosen words and music she describes, critiques, and in her way overcomes an unjust world in which women remain second-class citizens. And all along, she manages to eschew self-destruction negativism in favor of a healthy dose of “can do” positivism.

Whether or not Hickman purposefully includes her piquant and hit-worthy cover of The Rolling Stones’ Mother’s Little Helper to remind us that baby-boomer second wave feminism is now four-plus decades old is questionable. Whatever the case, it is a timely reminder that equality for women and mothers in both the private and public spheres should no longer be an issue, but a fact.

4-1/2 of 5 stars

Hope to see you soon!
Sara