Music CDs Reviews - Page 15

Josh Groban
Josh Groban
143 Records

Like Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban combines classical and opera music with enough pop to make the music accessible. This remarkable performer with a robust voice is in good company on his debut album; guest performers include Charlotte Church, the Corrs, and Lili Haydn. Not bad for a young man of just 20.

Songs include Canto Alla Vita, featuring the Corrs; You’re Still You, which he debuted last season on the television show Ally McBeal; Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring with Haydn; and The Prayer with Church.

Prolific songwriter and composer David Foster, who produced the album, particularly admires Groban’s versatility. “I love his natural ability in the pop and rock arena, but I love his sense of classics even more,” Foster says. “He’s a true musical force to be reckoned with.”

The Essential Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
Columbia/Legacy

The Essential Johnny Cash, which commemorates Cash’s 70th birthday, contains 36 songs that span the Man in Black’s extraordinary four-decade recording career. The two-disc set begins with songs from his Sun Records years in 1955-58, including Cry, Cry, Cry, I Walk the Line, and Get Rhythm, and weaves through Cash’s abundant musical history, culminating with his lead vocal on The Wanderer, backed by rock group U2 from its 1993 Zooropa album.

In between are Cash classics, digitally remastered to improve sound quality, including Ring of Fire, A Boy Named Sue, Daddy Sang Bass, Sunday Morning Coming Down, (Ghost) Riders in the Sky, Folsom Prison Blues, and Ragged Old Flag.

Greatest Hits II
Clint Black
RCA

Clint Black, one of the most-played artists on country radio for more than a decade, has amassed a collection of songs that showcases his enduring musical career.

Black more than simply compiled greatest hits from his last few albums; he reached back to his 1989 debut to include Nothin’s News and Walkin’ Away and selected songs from his entire discography, including One Emotion, When My Ship Comes In, Nothin’ But the Taillights, and Something That We Do.

Black’s family is part of Greatest Hits II. Included are duets with wife Lisa Hartman Black, When I Said I Do and their newest, Easy For Me to Say, and a song he wrote for their new daughter, Lily Pearl Black, titled Little Pearl and Lily’s Lullaby.

Prancer Returns
USA Network Original
Movie Soundtrack
MCA Nashville

This soundtrack for the made-for-television movie Prancer Returns blends Christmas classics from Bing Crosby (White Christmas) and Guy Lombardo (Jingle Bells) with original compositions and holiday favorites. Country-bluegrass band Nickel Creek contributes a folksy arrangement to I’ll Be Home for Christmas, teen singer Alecia Elliott performs If You Believe, and classical fans will hear Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.

In the Spirit
Michael McDonald
MCA Nashville

In the Spirit is a soul-stirring collection of mostly new music, sprinkled with a few traditional holiday songs (Angels We Have Heard on High, White Christmas, Children Go Where I Send Thee). The CD’s title is more than just a hint that this is a Christmas album; seven of the songs, co-written by McDonald, reflect the spiritual themes of love, mercy, and grace. Those cuts include To Make a Miracle, Peace, One Gift, and On This Night. McDonald’s unmistakable blues style runs through nearly every song.

A Wild-Eyed Christmas Night
38 Special
CMC International

Count on fun, high-energy versions of Jingle Bell Rock and Here Comes Santa Claus from this Southern rock band. After all, this CD’s title is a nod to their platinum album, Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, and they definitely are rockin’ around the Christmas tree. But 38 Special also includes reverent Christmas traditionals such as O Holy Night with soaring vocals by Don Barnes, Little Drummer Boy, and a lovely instrumental of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

No Wrapping Required
Various artists
Lyric Street Records This album includes established artists such as Ricky Skaggs, Porter Wagoner, and Aaron Tippin alongside newer counterparts Sonya Isaacs, SHeDAISY, Rascal Flats, and Kevin Denney. Songs include Jingle Bell Rock by Tippin, Mary, Did You Know? and The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) by Isaacs, Tennessee Christmas by Wagoner, Do You Hear What I Hear by Kree with special guest Rosie O’Donnell, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Kortney Kale.

Deck the Halls: A Spirited Jazz Christmas
Otis Read and Friends
North Star Music

These best-loved traditional carols are re-created as instrumentals with a fresh, contemporary jazz sound in this up-tempo compilation. Standards such as Deck the Halls, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear take on a new sound with the piano, saxophone, flute, and bass, yet the familiar, timeless melodies that we all crave at Christmas remain.

Jerry Jeff Walker
Ultimate Collection
Hip-O Records

This 20-song collection, by the singer/songwriter who gave us the classic Mr. Bojangles, is a must-have for any Jerry Jeff Walker fan. These songs, written by Walker, along with Guy Clark and Billy Joe Shaver, span three decades of Walker’s best-known and best-loved recordings, including Gypsy Songman, L.A. Freeway, Up Against the Wall Redneck, Desperadoes Waiting for a Train, and Railroad Lady, cowritten with Jimmy Buffett.

This Texas troubadour has released an album nearly every year since he began recording in 1967, and though he has plenty of new music, Ultimate Collection comprises his landmark sound.

Broadway Divas
Compilation
RCA Victor

Broadway Divas features Great White Way legends such as Angela Lansbury, Ethel Merman, and Eartha Kitt, and today’s stars, including Nell Carter, Bernadette Peters, and Bebe Neuwirth, singing songs from plays that made them stars.

Lansbury’s Tony Award-winning performance of Everything’s Coming Up Roses from the play Gypsy is just one of the album’s 15 cuts that include: I Got the Sun in the Morning by Merman from Annie Get Your Gun; Kitt’s Monotonous from New Faces of 1952; Neuwirth’s All That Jazz from the play Chicago; Carter’s Mean to Me from Ain’t Misbehavin’; and Liza Minnelli’s Sing Happy from the play, Flora, The Red Menace, for which she won her first Tony.