Monday, September 20, 2010

Artist: Wild Strawberries, Album: Grace, Song: Crying Shame


"Jennie lost her job on labour day.  She looks so disconnected but she's really afraid.  Ma-ma-monies gonna fade away.  She says, oooh ooh oh, what a crying shame."  The Wild Strawberries are a husband and wife duo from the Toronto area.  Roberta Carter-Harrison and Ken Harrison started their careers as the Wild Strawberries in the late eighties.  The song, Crying Shame, is actually on two releases.  The first in 1991, entitled, Grace and the second in 1994, entitled , I Bet You Think I'm Lonely.  The latter brought them to the attention of the Nettwerk label which carried them through their heyday in the nineties.  The band went independent in 2000 and are still releasing material today.  If you listened to the radio in Canada during the nineties, you would remember this Juno award winning band and their numerous singles like Life Sized Marilyn Monroe as well as the song Crying Shame.  It's melancholy pop at it's best.  Interesting fact about the Wild Strawberries is that they can thank their longevity to a Euro-trance artist named ATB.  The two have been collaborating for a number of years and have developed a following in Europe, notably in Germany.  They reported selling more records in Germany during the first week of release than in their entire career in Canada.  The band appears to be working on a new album.  They have teamed up with GO transit and seem to be riding the rails, visiting stations across the GTA and playing their music live.  You can follow the band at http://www.wildstrawberries.com/strawbs/Home.html.  You can purchase Grace and I Bet You Think I'm Lonely on Itunes and Amazon.  You can watch the video for the song, Crying Shame, on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRa1_jlh1T8&feature=related).  As always, you can hear this song as well as others that I blog about each day on Live 365 (www.live365.com/stations/raisedoncndnradio).  Thanks for reading and enjoy!