Album Reviews
Movies
Concert Reviews

Top 10
Resources
Contact Us

The history, folklore and traditions of Michigan are part of everyone native to the Great Lakes State. If you're like most from the area, your origins make themselves known in the flat tone of your short-A sounds, in the way you point to a spot on your palm when describing where you live, and in the bumper sticker on your car that says, "Say yah to da UP, eh?" If you're an artist and a poet like Sufjan Stevens, your roots spring up in the form of a gorgeous, fifteen-song album chronicling sadness, beauty, and social and political struggle in your home state.

Michigan, "The Great Lake State" is Stevens' third effort on Asthmatic Kitty Records, and is mutually released by Sounds Familyre. The disc plays out as a sonic tour of the state through the eyes of the poor, the broken-hearted, the forlorn, and the yearning. The album artwork by Martha Stewart crafts editor Laura Normandin is a masterpiece in itself, replete with a map of Michigan and icons of the state bird, tree, stone, etc.  Also included are slogans for the state and the Upper Peninsula.  Printed on slightly yellow paper with slightly uneven type, the artwork reminds one of an old map or guide book one might find in a summer cottage on Lake Michigan.

Michigan starts with a slow, lonely piano, that one would likely find in that Lake Michigan cottage, which is soon joined by Stevens' soft, aching voice on "Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)." The lyrics here and throughout the disc are poetically abstract and hint at deep stories beneath the surface, perhaps too sad to tell in their entirety.  But we do know here that the economically depressed city of Flint has taken its toll on the character in this song.

After a call for action and social justice in "All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!" featuring Megan and Elin Smith from Danielson Famile on backing vocals, Stevens compares two small towns in the title of the song, "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti." The pleasant town of Paradise lies on Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay in northern parts of the Upper Peninsula, while the low income families of Ypsilanti struggle in the shadow of privileged Ann Arbor in the southern part of the state.  But Stevens recognizes universal need, as the yearning chorus is repeated toward the end of the song: "I'll do anything for you.  I did everything for you."  Stevens' banjo and a sad trumpet played by Tom Eaton join the melancholy chorus. 

"Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!" plays with state slogans in the title and in lyrical phrases such as, "Tried to change the Made in Michigan." Stevens now lives in New York, but shows allegiance to his state of origin: "Still I never meant to go away / I was raised, I was raised / In the place, in the place / Still I often think of going back / to the farms, to the farms / Golden arms, golden arms." 

Although a theme of sadness runs throughout the disc, there are a few points at which Stevens seems absolutely intent on breaking our hearts. With the eerie "The Upper Peninsula," Stevens paints us a picture of a recluse living in the cold, snowy regions of the UP, where one is as likely to encounter a bear or a moose as a fellow human being.  The character tells us that he lost his wife, kids, and job, and it is clear that he has never moved on and most likely never will.

Another family tragedy plays out in "Romulus."  This time, the singer tells us in a rather matter-of-fact confessional style about his addicted mother and that he and his siblings were raised by TV. As an adult, he cannot talk to his mother on the phone: "When my turn came I was ashamed."

"Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" is a psalm of the downhearted.  Interstingly, in the liner notes, this song is subtitled "(In Lake St. Claire? Dearborn Heights? Hamtramck?)" -- perhaps Stevens wanted to touch on as many Michigan cities as he could.

"Redford (for Yia-Yia & Pappou)" contains a repeated, simple piano line reminiscent of Moby, with soft vocal 'ahs' and 'oohs'. It's easy to listen to this one with closed eyes and imagine a summer scene of children playing in the grass in their grandparents' suburban Detroit backyard.

Our road trip concludes with the benediction of "Vito's Ordination Song," a slow, brooding, yet joyful tune. Dan Smith joins his sisters and others this time on background vocals.

Michigan is an often beautiful, often sad disc combining complicated rhythms and a myriad of instruments with simple plaintive confessions. It is not without joy, even if that joy is only in a memory of the landscape and times that are gone for a transplanted musician now living in New York. What is interesting to note and difficult to believe, is that Stevens is planning 49 sequels to this disc: one for each state. His knowledge and intimate understanding of his home state will evoke more than a few memories and emotions for native Michiganders. Will he be able to do the same for residents of the rest of the Union? One thing is sure: Michigan will be a tough act to follow.

Dave Kerschbaum 7/22/2003