Untitled Document

Kevin O'Hare
The Springfield Republican
June 17, 2005

Norman Schell & Youth Well Spent, "Two Different Worlds"
(Independent) FOUR STARS ****

Norman Schell was the frontman for one of the best bands that New England ever produced, Clean Living, a group that was mastering the art form of country rock years before the Eagles even thought about it.
Clean Living recorded two sinfully out-of-print albums for Vanguard decades ago, but Schell carries on with his family band Youth Well Spent. Their latest release is this beautifully understated 15-song offering, filled with acoustic instumentation and Schell's warm vocals. "Two Different Worlds" even has a stripped down, heart-aching version of "Far North Again," one of Clean Living's best songs and one that Schell accurately describes in the liner notes as "The Top 10 hit that Vanguard killed."
Other highlights here include the violin-sparked title track, the Southern-styled ballad "Sweet Georgia Moonbeam," fellow Clean Living alumnus Rick Tiven's mournful run through Jay Ungar's classic "Ashokan Farewell" and "My Bluest Day," the last sparkling steel guitar instumental featuring Clean Living's late, great Paul Lambert, a true master on the instument, who died in March. This album offers not only thar splendid remembrance of Lambert's music, but reminds one and all just what a treasure Schell and his fellow Clean Living mates have been through the years.

Daily Hampshire Gazette Monday June 27th, 2005
by Jack Godleski
Valley band vetrans still strike right chords

Clean Living and Fat were institutions of the music scene in western Massachusetts during the late '60's and '70's. They were both pioneering bands of the era who pushed top-40 cover bands out of the spotlight and made room on Valley stages for acts who performed original material.
That was then. Norman Schell of Clean Living and Peter Newland of Fat haven't shared the same bill in decades. This is now, and fans finally got to applaud the two performers again Sunday when they took the stage together at the Iron Horse in Northampton.
And again, Newland and Schell proved how essential a part of Valley music history they are. After all this time, they packed them in just like it was the Rusty Nail in Sunderland 25 years ago.
Former area resident Dave Fitzgerald of California, who came here to attend the show, remembers the old scene well. How could he forget? The logos of both bands are tattooed on his right leg. "I spent some of my best New Year's ever watching them at the Rusty Nail," he said.
Schell and Newland came up wiht the idea of organizing a show that celebrated the songwriting tradition unique to the Valley at the funeral last winter of former Clean Living band member Paul Lambert. Celebrating that writing style, Newland said, as he took the stage Sunday, was like "giving it cohesion through performance."
"Tonight is about the songs," he said.
As the lead singer and songwriter for Fat, Newland was the master of the psychedelic-blues-rock style of the time. In the years since,as a Nashville songwriter, he has become a master of the country idiom as well. His current delivery features elements familiar to listeners of country radio, ranging from tender to honky tonkin' and points between.
Playing as a duo with guitarist Mark Pappas, Newland offered songs with lyrical imagery that centered on nature, highways and other symbols of Americana.
A crowd favorite was "Black Sunday" a tune from the classic Fat repertoire. Newland still sings with the same command he demonstrated on the origianl recording, and the haunting ballad is as hypnotizing as the best songs by Love or the Jefferson Airplane.
Schell's quartet, Youth Well Spent, took the stage next. A rootsy string band plus accordion, Youth Well Spent framed Schell's songs expertly. Among the covers and material from Clean Living (including the well received "Charles Street in the Morning"), were several tunes written from historical perspective.
But Schell was at his best when singing about divine subjects. His earthy voice demanded attention to his parables about Babylon, Galillee, and Zion. Schell's voice is a veratile instrument. He could say "this is CNN," as deeply as James Earl Jones and rise to a lilting quality in the next breath. It is the ideal vessel to carry his message that there is honor in everyday duty.
In the audience was Roger Kida, a drummer who played with both Fat and Clean Living. He made the trip from California to see the show, and he wasn't disappointed.
"It's like watching an old timers' baseball game," he said "They still have the same old stances and they play just as good. The old stuff still strikes a chord. There is nothing like Norm and Peter. They live for the music."

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Lou's Reviews /Pioneer Valley Folklore Society Dec. 7th 2003

It was heartening to rediscover old friend Norman Schell (the former front man for the defunct band Clean Living) at the November PVFS Song and Story Swap at the Black Sheep in Amherst. Norman, who performed with his daughter, Gail Hunt, on contrabass, and her husband Dan Hunt, on acoustic guitar, served up an engaging tapestry of Americana informed by his own vibrant roots. Norm's family-many of them farmers-emigrated from Germany to northeastern Pennsylvania in the 1680's. The singer-songwriter connects to that well-spring through family memories and his avid reading of pre-20th century American history, much of which has become grist for his strikingly melodic song narratives. Like most of Schell's output, his compositions, "Old Put's Mare" and "The Ballad of Mary Reede" (a pre-woman's lib female pirate) tell absorbing tales while transporting the listener in time and space. His settings of "Psalm 137 (Oh Jerusalem)" and of William Billing's Revolutionary War era ballad, "Chester," also take you for a bonnie ride on the time machine.
During the forty-minute set, Gail Hunt consistently laid down a rich bed of melodic bowing for her father's melodies. Her husband Dan's chords and intervals were unfailing in strategically highlighting the music. Conspicuous in his absence was the band's fourth member, Rick Tiven, whose arrangements and solo fiddle improvisations kick the band's energy level up a notch on their current CD, Norman Schell and Youth Well Spent. You can buy the CD at Dynamite Records in Northampton, Blue Mountain Music and About Music in Greenfield, and from Norman's website.

WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE Thursday March 10,2005
Schell's New CD weaves 'Two Different Worlds' into one
by Scott McLennan

Vetran songwriter and singer Norman Schell titled his new album "Two Different Worlds," but the 15 songs presented cover more ground than that. Schell's sharp eye for hitorical detail combined with the confidence that came upon turning 60 years old yeilded songs that would wend from Revolutionalry War tales all the way to modern domestic dramas.
Schell's songs travel north, south, east and west, and instead of crossing time zones, the music skips along timelines.
"Most of my songs have a historical background, whether it's my history, or someone else's history," Schell said. "I just hope that my songs, at least just some of them, will live longer than me."
Schell and his band, Youth Well Spent, are celebrating the release of "Two Different Worlds" Saturday at Cafe Fantastique, located inside Rotman's furniture store, 725 Southbridge St., Worcester. Show times are 6 and 8pm, and the band Wide Open Spaces, featuring Marie "Mud" Rocheleau, and members of Acoustic Planet and WayStation split the bill with Schell.
Youth Well Spent employs violin and mandolin virtuoso Rick Tiven whom Schell played with in the folk-rock band Clean Living. Youth Well Spent also contains Schell's daughter Gail, on bass and her husband, Dan Hunt, on guitar. The Hunts are well known along the Worcester music circuit as part of The Red Riders swing-blues band.
Schell was an integral part of the city's music scene in the '60's and 70's when he cultivated the folk music revival in these parts. As a founder of the Y Not Coffeehouse, Schell brought a little bit of Cambridge culture to Worcester. Schell's songs then found a home in the band Clean Living, whose two albums for Vanguard Records in the early '70's are considered pioneering fusions of country, folk and rock.
Clean Living found itself stymied by the record label while trying to make a third album, and the band eventually sputtered then splintered. With Youth Well Spent, Schell has revived some of the old Clean Living songs in addition to furthering his reach into traditional folk styles.
"I was think I was constrained in my early years. The music we played then was geared to being played in bars," Schell said. "Because of where I'm at in life now, I feel liberated to write about what is most interesting to me."
Such fare includes a musical snapshot of Revolutionary War's Battle of Bunker Hill, which Schell sings about in the song, "17 June." The inspiration-or "re-agent" as he called it- for the song was a visit to the USS. Constitution that included a stop to the Bunker Hill Monument.
" I fell and twisted my leg badly, I thought I broke it, but managed to limp around the Constitution. On the sheet music for the song I have written, "On the occassion of me falling at Bunker Hill," he said.
The record's rich sound further allows Schell to be the history buff as the songs with traditional themes tend to get traditional arrangements made all the more dramatic by Tiven's powerful playing.
Schell also took the time on "Two Different Worlds" to kick up his heels with some Clean Living alums, getting fine performances from pedal steel guitar whiz Paul Lambert and singing parts from, Tex LaMountain.
Schell said that Lambert's appearance was expecially meaningful as the gifted pedal steel player is dying from lung cancer and already too weak to partake in any more playing with the band. Clean Living members are reuniting for a performance April 30 at St. James Coffeehouse in Greenfield to raise funds for Lambert's medical expenses. Details are available online at www.normanschell.com.
Though the 15-track "Two Different Worlds" is just recently wrapped, Schell is already looking ahead saying he hopes to finish a historical ballad about Davy Crockett. "Not that I'm unhappy with the Disney version of Davy Crockett's life, but I think there is more to his politics that would make for a song people would find interesting," Schell said.
But if "Two Different Worlds" and the band's self-titled predecessor are good indicators, then don't expect Schell's historical account of Crockett to be pedantic or dull. His writing is as vibrant and alive conveying ancient tales as when he turns to such modern matters of love, yearning and heartache.
"The type of intensity we put across with this band is not frenetic. It's more visceral," he said. "I'm pitching from the heart."

FOUR STAR CD review July 13, 2003

Musician owes it all to Clean Living
by Kevin O'Hare of the Springfield Republican

Norman Schell & Youth Well Spent, "Norman Schell & Youth Well Spent" (Independant) * * * *

When you hear Norman Schell sing the first beautiful notes of "Charles Street," at the start of this album, there's something that feels like time stood still.

It was that same song after all, that was the first cut on the self-titled debut album from Schell's previous band, Clean Living, way back in 1972. Filled with rich images from the Boston folk music scene in 1968, it set the tone for an extraordinary cycle of songs.

Clean living was the toast of the town back then, filling clubs throughout the Pioneer Valley and beyond while releasing two major label albums for Vanguard Records - both of which unfortunately remain officially out-of-print. They even had a hit single, in a strange country rockin' cover of a polka, "In Heaven There Is No Beer."

More than 30 years later, Schell's voice sounds every bit as warm and resonant as it did back then, and the down-home flavors of this new CD mark the welcome return of a major artist who's been missing from the valley's music scene far too long.

It was none other than W.C. Fields who, when asked about the key to his success answered, "I owe it all to clean living and youth well spent."

Hence the name of Schell's current musical ensemble, which include his daughter Galadriel "Gail" Hunt on acoustic bass, her husband Dan Hunt on guitar and Schell's Clean Living comrade Rick Tiven on violin and mandolin.

Their music covers a broad spectrum of sounds, most of it folk and country based, with acoustic textures weaving in and around Schell's rich melodies.

While the re-worked "Charles Street" is a major highlight, there are several other standouts among the 12 tracks, which were recorded in the intimate confines of the Hunt's living room. From the sea shanty "Gloucester Hornpipe" through the reverent "Psalm 137 (Oh Jerusalem)," and the George Jones' styled empty-bottle saga "Pair of Queens," Schell's writing is consistently engaging, with lyrics that come vividly to life.

He is a historian, with a particular interest in Revolutionary War history, an avocation that's obvious on "Chester," a fascinating, mandolin-splashed tale penned by William Billings in 1778. According to Schell, the song was inspired by a minor militia victory that took place as part of the Brandywine campaign of 1777.

You won't find many artists mixing 225-year-old songs with more contemporary fare but that's just one of the many treats to be found here. The instrumental work throughout is exceptional, sparking tracks like the Carter Family-inspired "Banks of Stormy Jordan," the playful, fiddle-fired "Cajun Rock," and the mandolin-textured Caribbean-based tale of piracy "The Ballad of Mary Reede."

Daily Hampshire Gazette
Thursday January 15, 2004

2 Who Found Homes In Their Range

Paul Kaplan and Norman Schell are two guys in their 50's with busy work-and-family lives. They're also two veteran musicians with unbroken ties to the 1960's and everything that decade meant to folksingers.
If they had chanced to turn one different corner, stumble into one more coffeehouse in Boston (Schell) and New York (Kaplan) at the right moment 35 years ago, they might have become Tom Rush and Phil Ochs. As it is, they haven't abandoned the '60's ethos in their more mature years, and so much the better.
High in talent if not always in commercial visibility, Schell and Kaplan enjoy the double satisfaction of having a lot to say and not having to package it in any particular way other than to put out CD's and perform for friendly audiences. Those CD's are not frequent, however, so the recent release of one by each is cause for celebration. You can celebrate with them tomorrow night, and become part of each musician's newly (re)expanding audience base at P.A.C.E in Easthampton.
Schell who grew up on the streets in Florida and then hung out in Worcester and Cambridge in his early twenties, has a beautiful, resonant voice and a gift for adapting other writers' songs. You may think you've heard every version of "Amazing Grace" you need, but he does a lovely, quiet version of it that draws the listener 'way in. On his recent CD "Norman Schell & Youth Well Spent" it is enhanced by Rick Tiven's violin, Gail Hunt's bowed string bass and Schell's own sweet guitar.
He also writes original songs all over the map. His "Far North" is one of the best things ever written about moving between different parts of the country. Schell has performed it with the locally legendary folk-rock band Clean Living, of which he was a founder, and there's a knockout version of it on a recording by New England country singer Donna Lee.
His other tunes range from "Charles Street," an anthem to second-hand clothes, hippie food and Boston cafes to "The Ballad of Mary Reede," which sounds so 19th-century you assume it's a traditional sea song until you check the credits. Put Schell in a period costume and he could be singing for tourists at Sturbridge Village.
His "Cajun Rock," is the most outrageously hybridized song I've heard in years: a Cajun fiddle tune, but all about Grand Ole Opry-type C&W musicians like Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. As for the songs reference to shining shoes, this is no wannabe romance. Schell readlly did shine shoes as a boy to earn some extra income.
Talking last week about the heterogeneity of his material Schell said, "I'm not interested in the thematic (approach to putting songs on a CD). I think I'm chemiclaly averse to do something thematic. I like putting out a CD that shows something Cajun, Mexicali, a sea chanty, a folk-y ballad. It's more interesting to me- but harder to market."
Both Schell and Kaplan have reached a point in their lives where they plan to perform more again. "It's been a long haul," said Schell, who once long ago ran for mayor of Northampton and whose current day job is processing shipping documents for imported aluminum (really). "I wasn't sure I wanted to get back into the grind (of touring), but I'm trying now to get more attention."