Song Requests With Angie Hart And Stephen Cummings

29 June 2016 | 11:38 am | Staff Writer

Because what's better than a letter about music?

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We got Angie Hart and Stephen Cummings to write to each other to request the songs they’d like to hear at their respective By Request sessions at Leaps & Bounds. Hart performs 3 July at Some Velvet Morning. Cummings takes the same stage on 7 July.

Angie Asks Stephen

Dear Stephen,

Well, I really want to hear She Set Fire To The House, but I suspect you have been asked for this song many times already and will play it anyway. With that in mind, if it is not too painful a chore, I would love to hear you play these songs:

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Shaped Like Love – I remember when Spiritual Bum came out. I was living in St Kilda and a book you had written, Wonder Boy, was also released around the same time. It sat on the shelves of my favourite bookstore on Fitzroy Street. You were obviously owning this town and I thought that was a pretty great benchmark to look towards.

Push It Up All Fall Down Lovetown was a big album for me, as I’m sure it was for most of us. It made me feel sophisticated for ‘getting it’, even though I really didn’t understand what the songs were about.

Speak With Frankness – I love the musical ground that you tread. Your lyrics are always refreshingly unusual, but perfectly put, sitting on a crafted bed that you make sound effortless. This song is both melodically and rhythmically the kind of thing that I’m talking about. If I haven’t said that enough in the past, I apologise. You have always been such a staunch supporter and mentor to me – perhaps I felt that you didn’t need to be told.

Anyway, I’d better get back to preparing for my show. Please don’t pick anything too obscure when you serve me with your request list in return. Go easy.

Stephen Asks Angie

Basically I love Angie's breezy, slightly kooky voice and persona and have always been a fan of her summery sugar-pop.

I have sung with her on numerous occasions, and like all good singers she just opens her mouth and doesn't think too much about it. She's a stylish dresser and I'm probably a bit scared of her.

Probably if you think of all the singers that followed her, she has influenced a stack of the new folk-rock girls.

So Ordinary Angels is first.

Then Open Up Your Heart And Let The Sun Shine and Lonely.