Music CDs Reviews - Page 17

Inspirational Journey
Randy Travis
Atlantic Records

The deep, rich voice is unmistakably Randy Travis, and the fiddles and steel guitar give this 12-song album a decidedly country feel, but Travis has taken a departure from country music with his first gospel release. Inspirational Journey is not autobiographical, but Travis admits the songs parallel his own spiritual journey, from a rebellious, “out of control” teenager to the man of faith he has become.

Waylon Jennings and his wife, Jessi Colter, share vocals with Travis on The Carpenter, which he co-wrote. “I’ve been singing Waylon’s songs since I was 8 years old,” Travis says, “so it’s kind of fun now to hear him singing one of mine.”

Four years in the making, the album, which Travis strived to make diverse both lyrically and musically, contains just one traditional hymn as its closing cut—Amazing Grace. “When I decided to record it for Inspirational Journey, I didn’t figure there was anything I could do with it that hadn’t already been done by someone else. So I just sat there with my guitar and one microphone and sang it through. I guess it’s the simplest song on the record, but it’s probably the most powerful, too. When it’s all said and done, that’s what this whole journey comes down to, anyway.”

The Most Fabulous Classical Christmas Album Ever
Various artists
BMG Classics
There’s nothing like hearing Arthur Fiedler and his chorus perform Carol of the Bells or the Philadelphia Orchestra and Chorus sing Joy to the World to usher in the Christmas spirit. This album lives up to its name, with nearly 30 traditional tunes performed by world-class artists, such as Hallelujah Chorus by the Robert Shaw Chorale and Orchestra, The First Noel by the Canadian Brass, and I Wonder as I Wander by Leontyne Price.

Dream a Dream
Charlotte Church
Sony Classical
Celebrated Welsh soprano Charlotte Church, 14, recorded these holiday classics with the London Symphony Orchestra to create an old-fashioned, traditional, chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire kind of Christmas album. Tracks include O Come, All Ye Faithful; God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen; Silent Night; and What Child Is This? An exception is the new title song, recorded as a duet with young country singer Billy Gilman.

Brand New Year
SHeDAISY
Lyric Street Records
If you’re looking for a nontraditional Christmas album, this is the one for you. “It’s so different that the only things you recognize on the album are the titles of the songs,” says Kassidy Osborne, one-third of the trio of singing sisters. Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and Sleigh Ride are there, but with the definite pop-and-funk style of SHeDAISY. Original music includes Santa’s Got a Brand New Bag and Tinsel Town. Fun as these tunes are, this group’s extraordinary harmonies shine in traditional carols such as What Child is This and Hark the Herald Angels Sing/Carol of the Bells.

The Three Tenors Christmas
Jose Carreras,
Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti
Sony Classical
The Three Tenors Christmas captures a festive concert performance in Vienna and features music that Carreras, Domingo, and Pavarotti never have recorded before in their first album of Christmas music. The three superstars share the spotlight, singing favorite carols from around the world, backed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Domingo and Pavarotti share the stage on O Holy Night, Carreras and Pavarotti are heard in Adeste Fideles, and Carreras and Domingo sing together in Carol of the Drum.

 

 

Cowboy
Chris LeDoux
Capitol Nashville

Long before Garth Brooks mentioned Chris LeDoux’s name in a song, launching him into stardom, LeDoux recorded 22 albums on his own. Cowboy showcases 11 of those newly recorded early songs.

“Everywhere I go, there’s always a handful of fans who ask, ‘Where can I get the old stuff?’” LeDoux says. “And I’d have to tell them, ‘Well, it’s out of print. You can’t find it.’ I remember thinking, years ago, that someday if I got a chance, I should re-record some of my favorites and try to get them right. So that’s what I did.”

Cowboy, a view of the rodeo life lived by LeDoux, a retired world champion bareback bronc rider, is a departure from his rowdy concert performances. These songs are thoughtful stories, some of which are true and some “could have been,” he says.

A highlight is Song of Wyoming, a lovely ballad about the place LeDoux makes his home. Another is the LeDoux-penned Blue Eyes and Freckles, guaranteed to put a lump in the throat of any parent:

Blue eyes and freckles and holes in his jeans
Out in the back yard ridin’ his dreams
He’s our little cowboy until the day
The fences can’t hold him and he’ll ride away.

Allison Moorer
The Hardest Part
MCA Records

If you seek a contemporary singer who sings aching, traditional country music, look no further. Allison Moorer’s new album, due out at the end of the month, specializes in forthright, unfrivolous lyrics, sung with a smoldering intensity and strong alto voice.

“Most of the songs I hear these days only represent one side of love,” Moorer says, “but love has many sides.”

The first single from the album, the wistful Send Down An Angel, already is climbing the charts. Moorer may be a relatively new artist, but she’s already known success: she received an Academy Award nomination for A Soft Place to Fall (from the album Alabama Song), which was included in Robert Redford’s movie, The Horse Whisperer.

Moorer’s album is traditional, but she adds an element of surprise. After the last notes from the final song fade, keep listening. There’s a buried track, which reveals the most painful episode in Moorer’s life.

King of Nothing
Warren Brothers
BNA Records

The Warren Brothers combine some of the best of many musical genres—the tight harmonies of the Everly Brothers, the storytelling of Roger Miller, and the heartland’s soul of John Mellencamp—in their latest release.

The brothers, who call themselves a “raw, rockin’ country band,” with leanings toward Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash “in the old days,” sing of lost love in King of Nothing and of commitment in Waiting for the Light to Change.

But there’s a soft side to them, too, particularly in That’s the Beat of a Heart, a beautiful ballad featuring Sara Evans that advises listening closely to your own heart because, “You may find all your dreams have come true.”

Brad and Brett Warren embrace country music’s traditions in this album—due in stores next week —yet their lighthearted attitudes keep it fun.

Magic & Love
Shirley Witherspoon
Hot Springs Records

You know how television and movie characters always seem to have just the right soft jazz playing at their parties? You can skip the party and still have the music with this gem. Shirley Witherspoon’s soothing, soulful voice wraps around timeless classics It Had to Be You, As Time Goes By and Hello Young Lovers. Yet she uses enough of her own vocal stylings to make these classics hers.

Duke Ellington’s Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me is a nod of thanks to the band leader who catapulted Witherspoon to fame in 1969 when she performed with his orchestra.

“I always try to lay some Ellington tracks down when I record, as a way to say, ‘Thanks,’” Witherspoon says.

She acknowledges another jazz icon, Billie Holiday, in T’aint Nobody’s Business If I Do. “I’ll always associate this song with Billie Holiday,” she says. “I just give it my special treatment and hope Billie will approve.”

Undoubtedly, she would.

Half A Sixpence
RCA Victor

Half A Sixpence is best remembered as the vehicle that brought British pop sensation Tommy Steele — “the Elvis Presley of England” — to America and the Broadway stage in the mid-1960s. RCA Victor’s recent CD release of the original Broadway cast recording is a wonderful reminder of why the play, based on the title character of H.G. Wells’ 1905 novel, Kipps, earned nine Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Score.

Steele starred as Arthur Kipps, an orphaned drapery apprentice who, in 1900, inherits a great fortune and leaves his childhood sweetheart for a snobbish socialite. But he returns to his first love after his fortune is lost in a hapless business deal, and ends up contentedly as a bookshop owner.

Audiences loved the story line, which provided the 1960s stage with one of the most successful shows of the decade.