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Songwriter Series from the Spanish label Contante and Sonante is a new album series celebrating highly regarded songwriters of the world,the first one out is being released in October but can pre-ordered between May 31st and August 31st and it?s with Steve Dorff who has been honored with an NSAI Songwriter of the Year award, 40 BMI and 11 Billboard #1 awards, three-time Grammy nominee, an Emmy nominee for five television compositions, and nine #1 film songs and 15 Top 10 hits with artists like Celine Dion,Whitney Houston,Vanessa Williams and Barbra Streisand.
Steve?s songs are just like David Foster?s-pianobased smooth ballads that are performed by the soulful and unforgettable voice of Warren Wiebe who?s not with us any longer,Warren sang on Foster?s "River of love" from 1990 and also did some background vocals on Air Supply?s "Vanishing race" from 93 as well some appearances on albums with Taylor Dayne and Boyzone.
"Original demos" is a real relaxing album full of nice and soft ballads which sounds the best if you?re in the right mood,otherwise it can be a rather zzzleepy moment to get through but late at night when you feel like slowing down a bit after a hard day?s work with the job,children and other family stuff.....this album works just fine.
Warren?s voice is a joy for the ears and it?s so sad that he has passed away because I would have wanted to hear more from this great singer,just hear his dreamlike voice on "Somewhere in time" or be spellbinded by his performance in "Kindred spirits".
The whole album is a goldmine of hit ballads that could end up on the next Celine Dion album-for an example the magical "Love?s the silver lining" or the inspirational "In love?s name",some of the songs on the album has been recorded by Donny Osmond,Aaron Neville and Dusty Springfield.
A special song that will remain in my heart is the opening track "A little thing called life",it?s a ballad with a big B!.........music filled with emotions is the best way I can explain this album. |
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The lead-vocalist from Burlap To Cashmere is here with what I think his first solo-album. I adore the BTC´s album and that together with the fact that Monroe Jones (who I love as a producer) produced the album raised up my expectation to a very high level.
And that collaboration cannot fail, can it? Sure it can´t. The album has some VERY nice moments like in second out "Jungle Trail" which is a fantastic tune with such a beautiful text and a production signed by a master.
The album is pleasant all through even if there are a few tracks that doesn´t come up on the same level as "Jungle Trail" and a few others called worldclass. The album grows and after a few listens it feels even better. And Steve´s voice is unique in the business with a soul worth every penny. |
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Correct me if im wrong Stuart but i believe this is your 7th opus, indeed seven albums and still not really on the same popularity level as fellow songwriter and city born native hero Bob Dylan ! Im a little sad here as our friend Stuart Davis deserves more than attention that reaches far further away and beyond Minneapolis. His "Nomen Est Numan" release out of 96 was my absolute fave album that year but to be honest the follow ups "Kid Mystic" (97) and "Bright Apocalyse" (99) couldnt reach the same status as the songs werent as smart compact and humoristic written as on his 96 release. The only track that i do recall from that era was the brilliant "Only Echoes". But now Stuart Davis strikes back with a new self titled album that s far beyond just good, its really clever made ... its simply impressive ! Why ? Because our dear old Stuart rides that train where poor soul Kevin Gilbert had to take off. I probably cant find a bigger compliment for this Minnesotian songwriter, if Kevin Gilbert was still alive these days, im sure hed adored this album. The songs became more mature compared to his earlier work, the production sound by Joel Sayles (Hindu Rodeo) blows you away and couldnt been done any better ! Really flashy frontcover and his musical style also changed from singer/songwriting Rock to more melodic mainstream stuff. The lyrics are pretty awesome too, still not as humoristic as on "Nomen .." but for sure more ironic and funnier than on his previous two religious minded releases. Its actually pretty easy to describe this Stuart Davis album, its all the strongest work he has done so far gathered together and even more also thanks to the excellent guitarwork of Dirk Freymuth (no relatives!). My fave tracks are ... well its pretty hard to pick a few ... "Babies","Rock Stars & Models","Fault Lines","Dive", the amazing superbe ballad "Drown" and the brilliant "Dresden" (check out these lyrics) but all the songs not mentioned are at least as equal as the ones i quoted. Well if this album doesnt bring Stuart to the International stardom fame on this globe .. then i dont know anymore, then ill probably know more about cleaning shoes !
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The Deep Dark Woods are a Canadian alternative country band from Saskatoon, first established in 2005, the band consists of singer and guitarist Ryan Boldt, guitarist Burke Barlow, bass guitarist Chris Mason, organist and pianist Geoff Hilhorst and drummer Lucas Goetz.
They have released four albums to date, and deliver beautiful alt-country in the same vein as Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo and Guy Clark. The album sits on a nice production and the songs and performance is solid but still beautiful and "naked" in their way of being. "Mary's Gone" is a song that soundwise could have been on "Wrecking Ball" with Emmylou Harris and "Never Prove False" sounds like a really good Son Volt-sort of tune. Good work. |
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| For us here at THE MELODIC NET the most important is the quality in music. The Production, the melodies, the choruses and not least the performances. It doesn´t matter if we speak soft singer songwriter pop, americana rock, nubreed, alternative metal, AOR or whatever else we write about as long as it have some quality. So unfortunately I can´t give these four guys from Indianapolis more than one star cause they doesn´t have ONE of these things I just mentioned. It´s just boring alternative indie lo-fi rock in the middle of nowhere. Blah. |
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Jazz/fusion from Sweden may not be a wide area for collectors, but there are indeed some names to watch out for other than the well-known ones like Janne Schaffer, Hawk On Flight or Lasse Wellander (the latter misinx stuff up with pop, folk and even classical influences). THOMAS DARELID is one such artist, and as far as I know there are two solo albums by him. This one's "Rhythm of the heart", even though it's actually spelt "Rhytms" on the album.
Fans of DAVID FOSTER's instrumental work will love the opener, "Land of innocence". It's also reminding a bit of the solo piano album that VINCE DICOLA once released on the Artful Balance label. More light stuff follows with "Her first Summer", where I think of DAVID BENOIT's softer work as well as the great band FLIM & THE BB's. The piano and keyboard playing here is fantastic, with so much feeling. More edgy jazz/fusion is also included on the CD, like the slightly SPYRO GYRA sounding "Three years of a miracle". Same goes for the interesting mix of lightweight (instrumental) DIRE STRAITS meets MEZZOFORTE in "Uncle Remus" - a super cool tune!
Darelid has involved a bunch of awesome players to join him on these recordings, like PER LINDVALL (drums), LARS DANIELSSON (bass) and PER HOVENSJÖ (guitar). It's hard to find this item, but well worth the effort. |
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I found this album in a second handstore the other day and Im sure a lucky guy cause it was sure a diamond I found. Very nice laidback midwest pop in a mood of Keven Jordan goes to Marc Cohn for dinner. Yes - its that good and I must give you all a recomendation to surf away from Midwestern Skies and give it a try cause its damn nice. fave songs on the album are "Drive On" and the damn great "Your Own Backyard". A sure check out!
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Anyone who remembers the band Devonsquare who delivered some real cool music in the mid 90?s? Well, if you do and if you like me enjoyed their stuff I can tell you that one of the member, Tom Dean just released his second soloalbum. And this album is right up the Winberg Alley of music. Geeh, am I a sucker for these storytelling guys with voices from heaven or what? Yepp I am? What does this nice gentleman sounds like then? Well, take a few ounces of Paul Simon spice it with the 1990 era of Jackson Browne and put some ounces of John Waite (the 2000-era) and James Taylor and we?re quite near. The sound and production is perfect for this sort of laidback singer songwriter pop. And the guys that plays on the album aren?t dogshit either? Shawn Pelton on drums (Shawn Colvin band), Kevin Barry who use to play with Paula Cole on guitar and Michael Visceglia (Suzanne Vega) on bass. Tom Dean doesn?t deliver anything unique. But in this genre of music that is quite unnecessary. The most important is the vocals and the songs. And that combined with the beautiful production makes this album a real check out if you like the artists I just mentioned.
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If you look in your collection and see names like John Prine, David Crosby, Marc Jordan and Steve Forbert, this is one artist you should check out. Tony Denikos new album "In The Church" is a well produced album with 10 songs of good class. Best songs on the album are "Tip Of The Tongue" which actually could have been on the "Reckless Valentine"-album with Marc Jordan (a lovely tune!) and "When The Morning Comes" which also is a softer song. A lovely tune that sounds like a nice mixture of David Crosby and Jackson Browne.
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| A quite "strange" compilation with Vince. Sure its very nice but if you have the not so long ago released "In Vince ible" CD you can see that theyre almost the same. There are a couple of changes - but 85% the same. But if we dont discuss that and instead concentrate our minds on what we have here I can just say that it is a collection from the career of Vince. You have some great soundtrack music (from mainly the rocky-era) which is his trademark, you have some bombastic pomp-rock, music from his band Storming Heaven, you have some westcoast songs with Jason Scheff behind the microphone on one song and you have a couple of soul-tunes with Denise Stewart as vocalist. So the album is sure a shattered moment of music. I cant say that I dislike the soul-tunes but they dont belong on here if you understand my point. But if you see over that and dont have "InVinceIble" this is sure a buy cause when this man is good - hes fabulous. Get the point? Like a CD is far to shattered to get the highest gradings thou . Still a good initiative from the guitarplayer and musiclover Marino who put it out on his little label. |
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I?m happy to inform all fans of DiCola out there that his latest effort "Falling off a clef" contains selections from the upcoming
"Sci-Fighter" movie as well as new songs that are inspired by his music on the "Transformers" soundtrack.
The opening track "Castle of the gods suite" sounds like a mix between Rocky IV and Transformers,classic DiCola stuff.
Vince has also recorded a tribute song to one of his biggest inspirations,namely Keith Emerson - the 6 minute long "A.P.B"
makes you wanna play airkeyboard all night long.
His buddy and drummer Doane Perry also plays on these 2 tracks,but on the rest,Vince has used a drum machine and
many of the excerpts from "Sci-Fighter" has just a little too much computergame music over them,however this is a true
gem for the DiCola fan and who else in this world handles the tangents like Vince do?
HIGHLIGHTS:Castle of the gods suite,Sci-Fighter suite,A.P.B |
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| The new Willy is good, but not as his last one. Still worth a buy if you enjoy Willys special side of melancolic beautiful dirtdigged rock. I like him. |
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Did you know that?
AC/DC — the name was discovered by Angus and Malcolm Young. It comes from the letters AC/DC (alternating current/direct current) on the back of their family vacuum cleaner.
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latest reviews
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