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- Living Room
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- Ed Kliman
A narrative of two people, the secrets they must keep and the restless desire to better their conditions is revealed in this audiodrama short story accompanied by the song Living Room.
The setting is a midnight drive to Texas. The narrator sets up the story by starting with their present setting and then adding enough details to set up the completion of the story through the performance of the song Living Room, performed as a solo voice and guitar ballad.
Through this combination of story and song, the larger outlines of the couple's shared life and ambitions are sketched in. The piece is brought to a conclusion by the narrator after the conclusion of the song. The tone of this piece is joyous, wistful and an affirmation of the human desire to better ourselves.
Both the story and the song Living Room are in the tradition of Texas songwriters and storytellers such as Townes Van Zandt, Lyle Lovett or Billy Joe Shaver.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
A narrative of two people, the secrets they must keep and the restless desire to better their conditions is revealed in this audiodrama short story accompanied by the song Living Room. The setting is a midnight drive to Texas. The narrator sets up the story by starting with their present setting and then adding enough details to set up the completion of the story through the performance of the song Living Room, performed as a solo voice and guitar ballad. Through this combination of story and song, the larger outlines of the couple's shared life and ambitions are sketched in. The piece is brought to a conclusion by the narrator after the conclusion of the song. The tone of this piece is joyous, wistful and an affirmation of the human desire to better ourselves. Both the story and the song Living Room are in the tradition of Texas songwriters and storytellers such as Townes Van Zandt, Lyle Lovett or Billy Joe Shaver.
Musical Works
Living Room by Ed Kliman
www.TexasMusicForge.com
Produced 2005
Additional Files
Related Website
Marjorie Van Halteren
Posted on October 11, 2005 at 01:29 AM | Permalink
Review of Living Room
A short story woven with a song sung on acoustic guitar – I liked the idea. The voice of the singer and reader is deep and sonorous, and I liked the song, “Living Room.” The story starts out at the top sounding very promising, Cheever-esque. Then the song comes in – lyrics are intriguing…then the first cliché pops in…”livin’ on dreams…(well OK that speaks to me fine)” then living room living room…and the end of the story was a paragraph of – (really sorry) – clichés. What happened to the couple in the car? I know there’s supposed to be a poetic, thematic link between the song and the story – I listened to the piece four times and I didn’t find it. Take this neat idea and work it some more – ‘cause I think this is a rough draft.