Evening Star Music
1999
Rosebud
About This Album
After spending much of the 1980s behind the scenes as a songwriter, as well as establishing herself as a teacher of repute, Schock returned to recording, first with American Romance, and then, even more triumphantly, with Rosebud. The album is produced by the legendary, late Nik Venet - most celebrated for his work with The Beach Boys, as well as singer/songwriter Dory Previn - and the sound is suitably mid-tempo, spare and uncrowded, with the singer and the songs very much at the forefront. Sympathetic accompaniment is provided by a handful of guitarists, a small string section and two pianists, and the feel is a marriage of folk and adult pop, with the melodic values of a stage musical. The ultimate victory, though, is very much Shock's own - if her songwriting was always solidly reliable, here it simply excels itself.

Rosebud is, loosely, a concept album, drawing inspiration from classic cinema. The title track takes its cue from Citizen Kane, and finds Schock examining the 'rosebud' in her own life - not, in her case, a sled, but her father. Elsewhere are references to Casablanca, Marlene Dietrich, and other icons of film. However, this doesn't mean that Rosebud is a self-indulgent wallow in nostalgia - the music tingles with quiet vigour and freshness, and Schock is never imprisoned by the album's concept, straying from it as often as she adheres to it.
Track List (try tracks 1,5,10,12 and 13)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.