Writing music reviews can be little over whelming and can make you feel like you are slogging through mud. There is always a pile of CD containing envelopes on my desk.
In those envelopes you will find garnets, sapphires, rubies, emeralds and pearls. If you are like me there are a few you will say you don’t have time to review. Those are the reviews you can’t bring yourself to write. An honest review would be, “someone should have loved you enough to say don’t record that”.
Then it happens you open the envelope pop in the CD and you hear an exquisite voice. You realize you have fished a perfect diamond out of that envelope pile. In this case it is the voice of Cathy-Anne McClintock.
Now for the disclaimer: I listen almost exclusively to hip hop and rap. It would never have occurred to me to listen to Cathy-Anne McClintock.
I like to review the CDs in the car when we travel. At times my husband has accused me of torturing him and my son won’t get into the car with me and a bag of CD’s. This time my husband was happy that I was listening to “descent music”. However, somewhere around the hundredth time I played Cathy-Anne McClintock’s CD he asked me to put in a different CD. Later when I forced my son to listen, my husband automatically played my favorite tracks. He had the track numbers memorized! Ok, I might have played the songs too many times.
One the members of a band called Prylosis said he didn’t want their CD to be a “run on sentence.” I knew exactly what he meant. Sometimes you can’t tell when one song ends and another begins. Cathy-Anne McClintock’s self titled CD is definitely not a run on sentence. Each track stands on it’s own while keeping the over feel of the CD.
It was difficult with this CD to narrow down my remarks to one or two songs, but I will try.
“How Can We Be Friends” starts playing and you are no longer in your car. It is nightfall and a warm ocean breeze is blowing through your hair. It is eyes closed slow dancing alone, margarita in hand, tears just below the surface. Cathy-Anne’s voice gently touches that bittersweet memory in a part of your heart that never really heals.
“I Want To Live Like That” My favorite song on the CD calls you to sing along. This song is a “headset turned up to the hearing loss range” song. It’s a flowing skirt, eyes closed and that guy that makes you dizzy when he is a little too close. Cathy-Anne with Tim O’Brien sweeps you in and you are forced to hit replay. It quickly became my “play it over and over until someone around you snaps and threatens to hurt you” song.
“Are You Strong Enough To Be My Man”. At home this song would be the moment that can only comes when you are happy, alone and dancing around with the freedom that no one is ever allowed to see. Cathy-Anne’s voice is perfect. Everything about this song is perfect.
“Crazy About You” is FUN! This is a perfect “car dance” song. It is that high you get thinking about “him”. “It’s what you do to me, oh how you see through me, I think that I’ve lost my mind” Oh yes, we have all had one of those guys.
“All The Time” This is a lying in the sun, singing at the top of your lungs song, in my case badly and off key. Cathy-Anne’s voice is dreamy and relaxing. Hopefully, the guy in this song is the one that you were thinking about when you were singing “Crazy About You”
Step back in music history and you will find a tradition of artists recording gospel music. (Elvis is the first artist that comes to mind.) With the last track McClintock follows the time honored tradition and adds a hymn to her work. Cathy-Anne touched the little girl that I had almost forgotten. The one that loved going to all night sings at our church. My favorite music quote is by Edgar Watson Howe he wrote, “When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.” surely he was anticipating “Treat His Children Kind” and how it would make me feel.
I could go on about this CD and Cathy-Anne McClintock’s voice all day, but it is time to put fan girl back in her cage. Later in the week I will post the phone interview I had with Cathy-Anne’s and her bio.
Listen to Cathy-Anne McClintock
Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner
Gotta love this post!