Love songs that go the distance
| • | Love songs help soothe ache of separation |
By Tanya Bricking Leach
Advertiser Staff Writer
My sister in St. Louis put me on to Vienna Teng's new CD, "Warm Strangers." "She has a song called 'Harbor,' " my sister said. "It reminds me of you and Eric."
Glen Rose/Virt Records
Eric, my husband, is a soldier heading to Afghanistan for a year, so I had to hear this song, and once I heard it, I had to talk to the woman who wrote it.
Vienna Teng quit her day job as a software engineer two years ago to sing for a living. The piano player's latest album reflects on long-distance love.
"Harbor" is hypnotic. I replayed it the whole way to work this morning, and I'm still not sick of it.
The tender ballad is about maintaining intimacy with someone you're close to, despite the distance. It's the perfect song to listen to when you're missing someone, particularly if you've worn out your Sarah McLachlan collection. The chorus:
"Sail your sea
Meet your storm
All I want is to be your harbor
The light in me
Will guide you home
All I want is to be your harbor"
Teng, who has been playing piano since she was 5, began gathering audiences in dorm lounges and coffee shops in college at Stanford. She describes her music as "suburban folk" and sounds like a Tori Amos protege. What sets Teng apart is that her songs are like short stories filled with her fondness for Robert Frost imagery (as in the first track: "Feather Moon").
She's also familiar with the whole long-distance love scene.
"That came about from touring," said Teng, 25, who spent much of 2003 on the road. "The person I was involved with, we were apart for a long time. We managed to work it out. In a way, I kind of wrote 'Harbor' because I wanted a song for us and for him."
The "Harbor" single has gained attention on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition."
The first time she was on NPR, with her first album, "Waking Hour," in January 2003, David
Letterman was listening, and she landed on his show. Since then, her popularity has grown, and she's opened for such artists as Shawn Colvin and folk legend Joan Baez.
"Warm Strangers," her sophomore effort released on Seattle label Virt Records, doesn't disappoint.
It's filled with piano-driven melodies from the former software engineer who quit her day job two years ago to do this for a living.
"I think I'm most proud of the way my live performances have evolved," she said. "Maybe I owe that to the audience."
She has a strong base of Asian-American fans, but the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who settled in the San Francisco Bay Area is hesitant to be categorized as an Asian-American artist. She doesn't like to dwell on her ethnicity and says her Asian heritage has little to do with her work as a young American artist.
But she does pay tribute to her parents in a bonus track on her album. She sings "Green Island Serenade," a traditional Taiwanese folk song, in Mandarin.
"I called up my mom and had her write the words," she said. "It's an amazing song, also about distance."
Teng is again touring nationwide, but Hawai'i is nmot on her play list. (She's been here only once, to go backpacking with her family at Haleakala.)
Even if she doesn't make it to our shores to perform, however, her "Harbor" track alone is worth a listen. It's the kind of music that helps bridge the distance between here and those just out of our reach.
