Dar Williams, Richard Shindell and Lucy Kaplansky are Cry Cry Cry. Each is an established solo performer of some repute in the USA, with, to date, a total of eight, albums to their credit. Reunion Hill, Shindell's most recent solo album picked a 1997 Album Of The Year award whilst Kaplansky has contributed harmony vocals to albums by Nanci Griffith and Suzanne Vega.

The genesis of this project can be attributed to a couple of events that occurred around a year ago. When Dar started touring last summer in support of her End Of The Summer album, she included a Richard Shindell song in her set.

"I think it was a simultaneous brainstorm for me and Richard, where I sang his Ballad Of Mary Magdalene. People requested that I record it, but I actually had a growing sense that it would be more fun to do a song project. Then I told Nerissa Nields that I wanted to sing her I Know What Kind of Love This Is and she told me 'That's so funny, that's the one that Lucy Kaplansky wants to do'. Lucy is the kind of person who you meet and you get along with her immediately. We tried it once, and we didn't even know all the words. It became a secret dream for us to record it together. Even without the words, we got a sense that it would work."

On-stage at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in early October ('98), Dar admitted to the audience that she and Richard discovered during the foregoing tour that they were 'harmony whores'. Since two voices did not offer enough variations, they decided to invite, Lucy Kaplansky, the ultimate 'harmony slut' to join them.

When I asked Dar about the trio's name, she responded with -

"The name is kind of a wry play on a bunch of things, but there's not one thing that it really pertains to. It's repeated three times, so it insinuates that there's three people involved. It also alludes to the fact that folk music is associated with these exquisitely sad songs."

Talk about attempting the impossible. You've got your work cut out, trying to make a REM tune sound like anything other than a REM tune. Well that's my contention, and with Fall On Me Dar doesn't even try to stray far. Jangly guitars support a more discernible vocal than that originally delivered by Stipe, as Williams grabs the listeners attention from the get go.

For those searching for the story songs, Shindell scores mightily here on a count of three - James Keelaghan's Cold Missouri Waters, Robert Earl Keen's Shades of Grey, and Cliff Eberhardt's Memphis. Shindell's reading of the latter, aided by an appropriately understated electric guitar, is heart rending. His resonant baritone is the perfect tool for this type of material.

Kaplasky takes the lead on the opening verse of Ron Sexsmith's Speaking With The Angel, Shindell adding a perfect backdrop of supporting harmony to the gentle lullaby. Down By The Water opens with a Rubber Soul/Revolver era guitar lick that George Harrison would have been proud to author, while the supporting back-beat from Ringo trails just a few bars behind. Kaplansky handles the lyric of this toe tapping, Jim Armenti penned pop number with consummate ease.

A tenuous religious thread permeates the lyrics of a number of the tracks. Leslie Smith's symbolically rich Northern Cross enjoys an acappella rendition by the trio. And what more can be said about the closing song, The Ballad of Mary Magdalene, that isn't already known by the legion of listeners who are familiar with this Richard Shindell classic.

On threshold of the Millennium, history is about to repeat itself. There is a North American folk supergroup … it consists of two gals and a guy … and it's called Cry Cry Cry.