Émigré (album)

Émigré is the debut solo studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Wendy Matthews released by rooArt in Australia in November 1990. It was produced by Ricky Fataar and reached No. 11 on the Australian Albums Chart. It yielded three singles: "Token Angels", "Woman's Gotta Have It" and "Let's Kiss (Like Angels Do)". Matthews won the 'Best Female Artist' award at the ARIA Music Awards of 1991, and "Token Angels" won 'Breakthrough Artist – Single'.

Background

Wendy Matthews completed her touring commitments for the new wave group Absent Friends in mid-1990.^[2] She went into the studio with producer Ricky Fataar (ex-Beach Boys, Rutles) to record her debut solo album, Émigré. Her session musicians included Absent Friends' members Garry Gary Beers (also in INXS) on bass guitar, Andrew Duffield on keyboards, Sean Kelly on guitar, Roger Mason on keyboards, James Valentine on saxophone, and Mick King on guitar. She also enlisted Tim Finn (Crowded House) and Peter Blakeley on backing vocals. The album peaked at No. 11 on the Australian Recording Industry Association Albums Charts.^[3] It spawned the hit singles "Token Angels" (No. 18 in November 1990), Bobby Womack's "Woman's Gotta Have It" (No. 34 in February 1991) and "Let's Kiss (Like Angels Do)" (No. 14 in June).^[3] Matthews won 'Best Female Artist' and 'Breakthrough Artist – Single' ("Token Angels") at the ARIA Music Awards of 1991. Matthews was also voted 'Best Female Singer' in the 1990 Australian Rolling Stone readers poll.^[2]

For touring in support of the album, Matthews used Paul Abrahams on bass guitar, Amanda Brown on oboe, violin (ex-The Go-Betweens), Robbie James on guitar (Gang Gajang), King on guitar, Lisa Maxwell on backing vocals, Mark Meyer on drums (Mark Gillespie Band, Moving Pictures), Mark O'Connor on keyboards and Valentine on saxophone. In October 1991, she issued a live mini-album The Way It Has to Be and toured as support to US R&B group, The Neville Brothers. At the end of 1991, Matthews recorded her second full-length album Lily, which was produced by T-Bone Burnett and released in late 1992.^[2]

Track listing

All songwriters as listed.^[4]

"Token Angels" (Roger Mason) – 4:53
"As We Speak" (Paul Abrahams, Robbie James) – 4:17
"Won't Let Me Be (Georgia's Song)" (James Valentine, Wendy Matthews, Andrew Duffield) – 5:01
"Taking My Heart Around" (Danny Peck) – 4:35
"Square Moon" (K Govett, Geoff Stapleton, James) – 3:53
"Woman's Gotta Have It" (Bobby Womack) – 4:19
"State of Mind" (J Williams, B Cook) – 4:25
"Doomsday Lullaby" (Peck) – 4:38
"Goin' Back to My Roots" (Lamont Dozier) – 6:04
"Long Way from Home" (Matthews) – 3:12
"Let's Kiss (Like Angels Do)" (J Friedman, C Curtis) – 3:29

Note, track 10 "Long Way from Home" appears to be a cover of the Sandy Denny song "The Music Weaver" but Denny is not credited.

Personnel

Wendy Matthews – vocals
Peter Blakeley – backing vocals
Garry Gary Beers – bass guitar
Andrew Duffield – keyboards
Tim Finn – backing vocals
Sean Kelly – guitar
Mick King – guitar
Roger Mason – keyboards
James Valentine – saxophone

Charts

Chart (1992)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Albums Chart^[3]	11

References

Wendy Matthews

Discography

Albums	You've Always Got The Blues (1988) Émigré (1990) The Way It Has to Be (1991) Lily (1992) The Witness Tree (1994) Ghosts (1997) Stepping Stones: The Best of Wendy Matthews (1999) Beautiful View (2001) Café Naturale (2004) She (2008) The Welcome Fire (2013)

Notable Singles	"I Don't Want To Be With Nobody But You" (with Absent Friends) "Woman's Gotta Have It" "The Day You Went Away"

Related articles	Models (band) (Out of Mind, Out of Sight Rockmelons Absent Friends (band) It Takes Two (Australian TV series)

General

McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Whammo Homepage". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on April 5, 2004. Retrieved 22 July 2010. Note: Archived on-line copy has limited functionality.

Specific

↑ Allmusic review
1 2 3 McFarlane 'Wendy Matthews' entry. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
1 2 3 "Discography Wendy Matthews". Australian charts portal. Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
↑ "APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 6 November 2010. Note: requires user to enter song title, e.g. Token Angels

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 24, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.