{"id":387,"date":"2010-04-01T00:01:11","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T05:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"\/nashvillereview\/?p=387"},"modified":"2015-03-24T13:14:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T19:14:09","slug":"sufjan-stevens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/387","title":{"rendered":"Sufjan Stevens"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>A Winner Needs A Wand<\/h6>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-387-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/03\/19123449\/02-A-Winner-Needs-A-Wand.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/03\/19123449\/02-A-Winner-Needs-A-Wand.mp3\">https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/03\/19123449\/02-A-Winner-Needs-A-Wand.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<h6><a href=\"\/nashvillereview\/archives\/693\">Sufjan Stevens<\/a><\/h6>\n<p> is a pioneer in the indie-folk renaissance, noted for his evocative songwriting, use of diverse instruments from across cultures, and the string and horn arrangements that lend his music their symphonic quality.<\/p>\n<p>Stevens has an MFA in fiction from The New School. \u00a0\u201cA Winner Needs A Wand\u201d (released on <em>A Sun Came<\/em>, Stevens&#8217; first album) exemplifies Stevens&#8217; mastery of internal rhyme and humorous\/associative wordplay:<\/p>\n<p><em>This bite, you bit on me<br \/>\nYou put on me a gown<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Like the fennel seed<br \/>\nThe funny gene you found<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I like the man-o-weeds<br \/>\nThe man-o-wars abound<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I might just win a war<br \/>\nA matador around<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This life, a winner needs<br \/>\nA winner needs a wand<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In the same way that Stevens would explore a range of musical styles in later albums\u2014from <em>Enjoy Your Rabbit<\/em>, an electronica concept album inspired by the Chinese Zodiac, to <em>Greetings from Michigan<\/em>, a folk rock album based on the cities and people of the Great Lakes State\u2014this first album was also a style all of its own. \u00a0These early Stevens songs were characterized by wooden flutes, sitars, and Arabic chants, and were interspersed with tracks more akin to spoken word poetry than anything else.<em> &#8211; Zachary Greenberg and Matthew Baker<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Winner Needs A Wand Sufjan Stevens is a pioneer in the indie-folk renaissance, noted for his evocative songwriting, use of diverse instruments from across cultures, and the string and horn arrangements that lend his music their symphonic quality. Stevens has an MFA in fiction from The New School. \u00a0\u201cA Winner Needs A Wand\u201d (released [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[32],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-6f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11509,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/11509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}