Jean said she’d found the traditional story of Noah’s Ark to be overly harsh: “How could anybody be that bad ?” In the album’s liner notes she writes: “It is a little-known fact that tender-hearted sinners like you and I owe our presence on this planet to one merciful umbrella vendor of old who appeared just as the first drops of rain, threatening to engulf our ancestors, began to fall on the lands of Noah.” In her use of the vendor’s call, Jean envisions a retelling of the story in which everyone is miraculously saved by an unlikely source: We come from a place where the rain never fell / Can’t you see the sun straining at the empty well… It was always picnic weather but our mouths were parched and dry / We were thirsty all the time / Now Noah had a house where God kept knocking on the door / Can’t you hear him hammer away on his two-by-fours? The song lyrics describe a revelry as parched throats swallow the first drops of rain. The songlike call of umbrella street vendors fascinated Jean and planted a musical seed that finally bore fruit. We were entranced the first time we heard her do the lead track, “Umbrella,” live. The live performance of a portion of the album this past July at Rockwood Music Hall, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, swept over us like a sweet, warm wave. Jean Rohe will officially release Jean Rohe & The End of the World Show on Oct. Beyond the beauty of its bearer is the music she carries in her new album.
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