|
Music Reviews
Shining Star) is easily one of the most appealing songs on the album. Play to Win proves that Green hasn’t lost any of his sharpness, power, or seductiveness: “I know just what I’m sayin’, I ain’t lyin’ and I ain’t playin’, only the love is what I need, you can see whatever you want to see.” Al Green has been the pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis since 1976 and is the recipient of eight Grammy Awards for his gospel music recordings. Whether he is singing secular music or gospel music, Al Green proves he hasn’t lost any talent. He’s done a great job of polishing and sharpening what he has. The CD I Can’t Stop is a real gem. Five-time Grammy nominee, composer/pianist Suzanne Ciani was inspired while listening to the great romantic composers — Grieg, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and Brahms, among others. “Feelings I had never felt before welled up in me, and I was transported to an inner world I had never before imagined.” Ciani says, “That initiation left its mark on me forever and, as I grew to become a composer and performer, my music became a way for me to express the unspeakable, the mysterious, the longing for something.” Pure Romance (Seventh Wave Records) showcases some of Ciani’s most intimate compositions. Ciani has been called one of the world’s greatest contemporary composers; a queen of the keyboards; a Diva of the Diodes. More than a platform of technical perfection, Pure Romance is sensitive, nurturing, inspiring — truly beautiful. Trish Murphy, critically acclaimed singer/songwriter, has just released Girls Get in Free (Raven Records). Her first release in four years, Murphy’s saucy mix of rock-and-roll, acoustic guitar, and strong vocals makes Girls Get in Free another hit. “I wanted to make a record for the girls,” Murphy says of her album title. “A lot of Texas music at the moment is written from a guy perspective, and it started me thinking of all the girls at the concerts — the ones up on the guy’s shoulders, singing along at the top of their lungs. How much fun would it be to have our own anthems to sing?” Girls Get in Free shows that Murphy is having a damn good time delivering the anthems. The Trouble with Trouble is a lively recollection of all the dares teenagers fall victim to. The lyrics Murphy sings in this one, “It all started with a shot gun in 1973, when my Daddy got a brand-new 12-gauge, and gave his old one to my brother and me. We went out shootin’ stop signs … That’s how I learned the meaning of a misdemeanor… I did it on a double-dog dare” will conjure up the ghosts of many teenage antics. Murphy’s Thelma and Louis may hit the Top Ten chart. Who could resist the ballad of two women escaping domestic violence and running away from trouble? Love Never Dies (It Just Gives Up), I Don’t Want to Believe, and Paralyzed will become honky-tonk favorites describing lost love. Bob Schneider sings Cowboy Man — which was written by Lyle Lovett — in a fast-paced, two-step duet with Murphy. Their voices are lively and complimentary in musical dialogue, while electric and slide guitars rush to keep up with the tempo. Earning high marks for her previous independent recordings Captured, Crooked Mile, and Rubies on the Lawn, Girls Get in Free has Trish Murphy doing what she does best: knocking out country western/rock-and-roll ballads with Texas attitude and signature style. |
||||||