Wildy's World Sunday Singles: June 12, 2011

Charlie Major - Through God's Eyes
2011 Charlie Major

Charlie Major's "Through God's Eyes" is an easy-going country/pop ballad that bemoans the state of mankind and the world around us, calling on the classic theme suggested in the title.  While a bit cliché, the song has a solid melody and a chorus that's easy to sing/hum along to.  It's the sort of song that's very palatable to country music radio programmers and will also appeal to the Contemporary Christian crowd.  At the same time, this theme has been done so many times it may just disappear after a few spins.

Rating: 2.5 Stars (Out of 5)

www.charliemajor.com

The Trouble With Templeton - Bleeders
2011, The Trouble With Templeton

Neat acoustic-guitar based song, with tortured vocal style and nice accents in the form of minimal vocal harmonies.  Gorgeous guitar work forms a warm core from which the desolateness of this song can grow.  This is a compelling little number, and for all of the roughness of Thomas Calder's voice, his is an intriguing sound that fits perfectly here. 

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

www.thetroublewithtempleton.com

Teleprompter - Banshee
2011, Teleprompter

Teleprompter's "Banshee" is a violent throwback to the New Wave era, soaked in synthesizer and distorted guitar.  Mitch Exton wails the vocal line in a frenetic performance that gets points for enthusiasm and energy.  This is an entertaining number with the brash energy of punk rock; easy to dance to and lose yourself for three-and-a-half minutes.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

www.myspace.com/telepromptertheband.

Millions - Those Girls
2011, Millions

"Those Girls" is a catchy alt-rocker with a 1980's feel and a bit of funk in the bass line.  It's a highly entertaining number that rarely slows down.  Shades of U2 can be heard in the vocal line and the utter dark/light juxtaposition of the song. 

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

www.facebook.com/millionsmusic

Kristin Chenoweth - I Want Somebody (B!tch About)
2011, Masterworks Broadway

Kristin Chenoweth is a musical chameleon.  The TONY and EMMY Award winner has recorded performed or recorded pop, Broadway and even sacred music.  With "I Want Somebody (B!tch About) she moves firmly into the country music realm.  The first single from her upcoming album, Some Lessons Learned, is simultaneously one of the most honest songs about love to come out of the pop/country spectrum and as campy as can be.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with the vocals here; Chenoweth can sing absolutely anything, but the brief spoken word intro is a distraction that may make it harder for some listeners to take the song seriously.  The song itself is wonderfully written and performed, effectively straddling the lines between country and rock.  Don't be surprised if Chenoweth flirts with the top of the country charts with "I Want Somebody (B!tch About)".

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)

http://www.kristin-chenoweth.com/

Randy Travis - He Walked On Water (feat. Kenny Chesney)

2011,

Randy Travis re-works "He Walked On Water" as a duet with Kenny Chesney for 2011.  The ode to Travis' great-grandfather is touching and well-written, and delivers a dose of old-school country charm, ala George Jones.  This song is a winner all the way around, from sentiment to melody.  Chesney and Travis pair together well, reflecting two generations of country stars coming together in the balladeering roots of the genre.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

www.randytravis.com

Sutton Foster – An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle

Sutton Foster – An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle
2011, Ghostlight Records

Good actors can bend themselves to any role.  Great actors wrap a role around themselves like a second skin, becoming both themselves and the other.   For all of the acting classes and workshops one can take, this particular quality is not one that can be learned.  It’s a quality shared by some of the greatest names to grace the stages of the Great White Way:  Patti Lupone.  Bernadette Peters.  Angela Lansbury.  Kristin Chenoweth.  Sutton Foster. 

Sutton Foster made a name for herself as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, winning the 2002 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, as well as similar awards from Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and the Fred Astaire Award for best actress in a musical.  Foster has gone on to roles such as Jo March (Little Women – Tony, Outer Desk and Drama League nominations); Janet Van De Graaf (The Drowsy Chaperone – Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Circle nominations) and Princess Fiona (Shrek The Musical – 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical).  On March 10, 2011, Foster began previews at The Roundabout Theatre for the Cole Porter classic musical Anything Goes.  As if she’s not busy enough, Foster also released her second album, An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle, this week.

Live albums are always a risk.  Even in an era where genius and technology can make a rough performance sound great after the fact, an artist is totally exposed in a live performance, and particularly in the intimate setting of a cabaret show.  At the same time, the magic that occurs on stage is ever-so-difficult to transfer to an audio recording.  Yet it’s delightful to report that Sutton Foster pulls it all off with unabashed charm on An Evening With Sutton Foster.  Culling songs from her debut album Wish, as well as from her previous work on Broadway, Foster charms with a blend of songs and stories that will entertain you, touch your heart and make you laugh out loud.

The show opens with “I’m Beginning To See The Light”, a Duke Ellington number performed by Foster with the sole accompaniment of ukulele.  It’s a brilliant opening full of showgirl zeal but with an air authenticity that simply cannot be manufactured.  Foster has one of those voices that rings in your mind for ever after hearing it, and is personality plus on stage.  Foster strings together snippets of songs from roles she’s played in a medley of “Not For The Life Of Me” (Thoroughly Modern Millie), “NYC” (Annie) and “Astonishing” (Little Women).  As medleys go this one works better than most, the transitions almost seamless, even if “Not For The Life Of Me” was cut woefully short.  “Up On The Roof” is offered in a sweet and lyric interpretation that’s full of heart and a sense of reminiscence about her early years in New York City.

Foster’s cover of Christine Lavin’s “Air Conditioner” is perhaps even funnier than the original, owing a great deal to the charm and pizzazz of the singer, qualities that wash through your speakers and bathe the listener whole.  Foster changes paces nicely with “Warm All Over”, a sultry and sweet take on the Frank Loesser tune from Most Happy Fella.  Foster rips off the roof (and a boob pad) in “Show Off”, one of the signature numbers from The Drowsy Chaperone.  The roof lands several blocks away, as Foster cranks it up with a powerful, thousand-watt performance; while the boob pad hilariously lands on her brother, Hunter Foster.  The show goes on, but the moment is timeless and thankfully not excised from the recording.

“More To The Story” is a song that was cut from Shrek: The Musical before it came to New York, and you have to wonder why.  After hearing Foster’s performance here you won’t be able to imagine the show without it.  Foster’s performance is full of heart and beauty that moves beyond music into the sublime.  “My Heart Was Set On You” is an amazing tune – a heartbreaker about forbidden love that works out the way everyone expected all along.  An inexorable tragedy in song that finds the heroine still somewhat in love even from the other side of heartbreak.  This is a pure “WOW” moment.  The transition into “Down With Love” (Hooray For What!) is classic, with Foster offering a quirky/sweet performance that is perhaps the perfect spoiler to the heartbreak that preceded it.

Foster pulls off another “WOW” moment on Duke Ellington’s “I Like The Sunshine”, offering a lyric performance full of vulnerability and hope that are palpable.  For a performer who can belt with such aplomb to be able to pull off a number like this is stunning.  A small lottery conducted by Music Director Michael Rafter leads next to a roof-raising performance of “Defying Gravity” (Wicked).  Dare it be said that Foster pulls it off as if she, herself, originated the role.  Foster puts on the faux ingénue qualities of a classic movie moll for “Late Late Show”, before moving into a sweet and lyric version of John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulders”.  Foster gives up the belt here for a light and airy sound that highlights the utter beauty of her voice.  “Anyone Can Whistle/Being Alive” and “”Come The Wild Wild Weather” are both sweet numbers that serve as a bit of a respite for the singer before building to the big finale.  Foster begins the end with The Beatles’ “Here, There And Everywhere”.  Accompanied by banjo alone, Sutton Foster creates one of those pure musical moments that are steeped in an esoteric and timeless beauty that’s about as impossible to describe as it is to create in the first place.  It’s moments like this that concert goers remember all their lives.  As if that weren’t enough, Foster goes over the moon with “And I Am Telling You (I’m Not Going)” from Dreamgirls.  If Foster blew the roof off earlier in the show, this number couldn’t have left a wall standing.

Sutton Foster is what is considered a triple threat on Broadway.  She sings, she dances and she acts.  But sometimes the term triple threat doesn’t even begin to explain what an actor can do.  Foster’s sense of showmanship combines with an utter authenticity that’s built on smarts, humor, a little bit of grit, and a healthy dose of southern charm and sophistication.  Add to that a voice that can lull you into the ether and then blow you away all in the same breath and you have a singular, rare talent who will be remembered for generations.  An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle is a document and testament to talent, charm and grace to one of the leading ladies of the stage.  Sutton Foster shines bright.  An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle can be nothing less than a Wildy’s World Certified Desert Island Disc.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Sutton Foster at http://www.suttonfoster.com/ or on Facebook.  An Evening With Sutton Foster - Live At The Café Carlyle is available from Amazon.com as a  CD or Download.  The album is also available from iTunes.

Katherine Jenkins - Believe

Katherine Jenkins - Believe

2010, 143/Warner Bros. Records

Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins is bigger than Celine Dion and the Spice Girls. At least she's outsold both mega-acts in the UK, becoming one of the few recording artists in UK history to score two #1 albums in the same year. Jenkins' seventh album, Believe, dropped in the UK in the Fall of 2009. Produced by 15-time GRAMMY Award winner David Foster, Believe calls on both Jenkins' mastery of classical music as well as her love of the pop form. Long unknown to US audiences, Jenkins' contract with Warner Bros. Records opened the door to the New World, and Believe was released in North American in May of 2010.

Believe opens with "Till There Was You", Meredith Wilson's classic song from The Music Man. Jenkins' RCSM training shows in her diction with consonants so crisp they could be used to chop wood. This may be a distraction for those used to the slurred or often absent diction of your typical pop star, but Jenkins' mellifluous voice will quickly convince you all is as it should be. The bravest and best choice on Believe is Jenkins' startling cover of "Bring Me To Life" (Evanescence). Foster's arrangement cuts out the drums and brings natural percussion out of the strings in a striking contract to Jenkins' vocal line, all while maintaining the edge of the original. It's a true "Wow" moment. The cover of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" is a bit more formal than the original but maintains the sweet spirit McLachlan's version embodies.

Andrea Bocelli sits in for a duet on "I Believe", remarkable for the chemistry and blend of vocal sounds he and Jenkins achieve together. Jenkins sounds like a true leading lady on Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Love Never Dies", caressing Lloyd-Webbers trademark cadences like she was born to sing them. "Fear Of Falling" plays like a classic Broadway ballad; it's a great love song on its own but Jenkins breathes life into it and makes it walk. Having played well on the pop side of the wall, Jenkins returns to her roots with "Parla Piu Piano (Love Theme From The Godfather)", intertwining the beauty and tragedy of the song in a vocal performance that will send chills down your spine. Perhaps the most amazing discovery for someone previously unfamiliar with Jenkins is her ability to belt with Wagnerian intensity only to suddenly plummet to sweet lyric sounds that are so diametrically opposed as to seem impossible.

Andre Rieu sits in for Aneora Non Sai, matching his violin to Jenkins' voice in a dance you'll want to hear and hear again. Jenkins has a true diva moment covering Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose", recreating the Victrola sound for the opening of the song. It's the sort of performance that helps you understand Jenkins' mastery of her instrument, both technically and as an entertainer. Make sure to catch Chris Botti's appearance on "La Califfa", which leads into Jenkins' powerful interpretation of Queen's "Who Wants To Live Forever". Jenkins closes with Adagio, returning to her roots with a simple offering that overcomes aesthetics and reaches for pure beauty.

Katherine Jenkins has serious chops as a classical singer, but her coming of age in Britain's popular culture may cause some serious classical music fans in the US to take her a little less seriously. Don't. Katherine Jenkins masters both classical and pop styles in a fashion that calls to mind artists such as Josh Groban and Kristin Chenoweth. Believe is destined to make a path for Jenkins to concert halls across North America. It's unthinkable that she might be just a British phenomenon. Voices like hers do not come along often.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Katherine Jenkins at http://www.katherinejenkins.co.uk/ or www.myspace.com/katherinejenkins.  Believe is available from Amazon or iTunes.