Harlan Steinberger

May 10, 8:14 PM – LA Poetry Examiner – Yvonne de la Vega

Harlan Steinberger of Hen House Records wasn’t pursuing a reputation as one of the best poetry producers of the Los Angeles poetry and music scene, but today not only is he one of the best, he is also an innovator of a whole new budding genre in music.

Poetry’lectronica has been born – and the great news is, it’s pop music!

As the producer of Ellyn Maybe’s album of poetry and pop electronica, “RODEO FOR THE SHEEPISH”, Harlan Steinberger presents a clever and magical interpretation of a poet’s body of work. Steinberger has accomplished what not many others before him has ever done. He has produced a radio friendly showcase of poetry and pop- electronica in an album that, with most of it’s tracks might easily be played on pop radio.

The record is just about everything a pop record is. It’s got hooks, choruses and clever lyrics, it has a beat you really want to dance to. It has perfectly “out of the box” sound hooks that because of it’s sound – is catchy, just like a few pop hits in the past have had, such as the syncopated vocal musings that Michael Jackson innovated. It’s rhythmic and hip, easy to listen to, and once again, the best part is – it’s poetry! – and it’s pop! (more…)

I’ve never been that big of an advocate of “oral” poetry (in fact it suggested sex to my dirty mind). Nor did I care that much for “voice” or “performance” poetry, which always suggested to me a way to present otherwise dull poetry where everyone bows their head to the grave task of “understanding.” I thought of it as more arts org decoration because no one knew what real poetry was when funding it, so applause would thus take cues from Jerry Springer with all the slam and “stuff.” I am old fashioned enough to know that in black ink the love of poetry still shines bright. So what do I get in the mail but the new wave of the future of publishing: a cd of the recorded voice; a little booklet of poems; the photo of the poet’s life all in one neat little package! i revised my thinking on the topic. Maybe it WAS important to hear the old Celtic tremble of Yeats, or the dramatic sculpted prosody of Pound in recordings. So here is the gift of the voice of Robert Peters, Professor Emeritus who is probably the last academic scholar and real voice in American poetry to be heard.
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By Bob Holman & Margery Snyder

About.com Guide

(Hen House Studios, 2009) Ellyn Maybe got her moniker because she was too shy to commit when she signed up for the open mic list—“Ellyn,” she’d write, “maybe.” She’s an LA phenomenon, published by Henry Rollins, the lovechild of Gertrude Stein and Allen Ginsberg, a lyrical poet in hippie couture, a one-of-a-kind. Now, with Rodeo for the Sheepish, she shows she’s ready for Las Vegas. Brilliant settings by producer Harlan Steinberger, superlative vocal backtracks by Tommy Jordan—all of a sudden, she’s gone Motown and you can hear the sheer force of Poetry vs. Pop music in an arena the size of Radio City Poetry Hall. Humor, poignancy, universality, individuality—like all great artists, how she does it is a mystery, but Ellyn Maybe is for real.