Jeff Talmadge The Spinning of the World  Bozart Records1003

In a perfect world, everyone would sit out on the back porch, watch the sun drop behind the trees 
and in the ensuing twilight, listen to their dad or favorite uncle explain, in wise, gentle tones, the 
thornier aspects of love and life. That doesn't always happen. What has happened for those of us 
not lucky enough to have experienced the aforementioned, is Jeff Talmadge softly singing 
"The Spinning of the World, " and other declarations of emotional strife and their place in our lives.

In the title track, with sad compassion, he sings, "Maybe she broke your little heart 
/ Maybe your little world is gone / Go ahead and tell us how it hurts / We'll tell you how you're the only one 
/ It's the blinking of an eye / It's the the spinning of the world / It's your life that's flying by / Don't let your life fly by 
/ Don't leave those words unsaid." Background vocals by Eliza Gilkyson and Iain Matthews and the violin of 
Gene Elders help to shape this work of art.

In "Advice to a friend," while the words and ideas are familiar, Jeff's quiet baritone in tandem with his artful 
spare truths, and Frank Kammerdiener's cello, team up to weave a spellbinding tapestry out of the most 
common cloth. "And sure you know her better / Than she knows herself / but still you think of all the things you know 
/ What she meant when she said / I don't love you any less / Was I don't love you any more." The words will wound 
the man who needs to hear them, but it's a clean cut, and hopefully the scar is minimal. 

One of my favorites is "The Hard Part's Letting Go." As with just about every song, we can only shake our heads 
and think, "God, how true." Here, he sings: "You can't fight the undertow / Touch a live wire and you can't let go 
/ It's easy to hang on to the love you know / But the hard part's letting go / The hard part's letting go." 

While most of the life lessons seem to come at us directly, some truths are borne to us in tales of others. 
We can watch and learn from a distance in "Jessie's Blues." "She's lost, she's lost, she's lost / But she's making real good time 
/ She's turning down a ine-way street / Got two wheels in a ditch / But she's making real good time / She's making real good time."

As counterweights, there are hopeful insights found in love that needs to overlook the past in "That Doesn't Mean I don't Love You," 
and the last song on the album "Icing on the Cake." Here, Jeff sings to the love that he's found, "You held me up when I was stumbling 
/ And when you caught me / I was just about to fall/ Some things get built / When other things are crumbling / You can't see the window 
/ when your back's against the wall / If if all should end tomorrow / I know the view I'll take / This time I spent with you /
 It was just icing on the cake / It was just icing on the cake."

As he leads you up to and through the hard truths, and as his voice cracks in places, you will remain riveted. You know he knows 
where you still hurt.

The Spinning of the World can be purchased at 1-800-buymycd and songs.com

Jeff can be reached at www.jefftalmadge.com and bozartcd@aol.com