Four for the road
Albums for a long hot summer include the
Parton/RonstadtI Harris Trio and
Timeless , featuring Diane Schurr.
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ummer is a time for surfin’ safaris,
dancin' in the streets and walkin’ on
sunshine. Time to pull on your shorts
and drop the “ g” off your verbs. Forget
the formal; roll down the top and cruise on
into It’s Better than Ever Street.
So let’s talk about what keeps your car
running five miles over the speed limit and
forget our troubles for awhile. As it happens
there are some very classy women to help
us with the task at hand.
Trio is the long awaited album from
Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmy-
lou Harris that lives up to, and occasion
ally exceeds, the high expectations that are
raised by this combination of star-studded
talent. Working in a mostly country vein,
our heroines bring a light and restrained
touch to their material, which ranges from
the traditional to Phil Spector.
More remarkably, Trio is truly a
collaborative effort, while each singer is
allowed to display her own considerable
abilities, a sense of harmony and unity is
always maintained. In fact, despite the dis
tinctiveness of their voices, the harmony
on this album approaches the feeling of
hearing a single voice.
Of particular note is Spector’s “ To
Know Him Is to Love Him,’’ Parton and
Wagner’s “ The Pain of Loving You” and
Linda Thompson’s “ Telling Me Lies.”
This is country without the com and pop
without the poop.
A slightly older release is Kate Bush’s
The Whole Story, a “ greatest hits” collec
tion from a performer who has not enjoyed
the type of success in the United States that
she deserves.
In comparison to other pop artists, Bush
is rather avante garde. She is not con
strained by the shackles of the verse/chorus
dichotomy that dominates popular music
as a whole. This makes the older songs on
the album, some of which date back ten
years, still sou^d fresh and new. If the
strength of a record is the number of times
you can play it without becoming violently
ill. Bush wins hands down every time. Her
music speaks to your heart; her lyrics to
your head.
A more traditional popstylist is Whitney
Houston, whose second outing, humbly
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titled “ Whitney,” has just arrived in your
local store. Whitney’s many fans will want
to know whether this measures up to the
zillion selling first album. Well, brothers
and sisters, the diagnosis from this comer
is that Ms. Houston will continue to get
richer and richer after you discover that
this album has enough hits to make Pete
Rose jealous.
Of course, the Doctor remains suspici
ous of easy overnight success. However,
Faithful Companion urged me to listen to
this record and 1 must admit that she has
her moments. (So does Faithful Compa
nion, but that’s another column.) One sour
note: the liner credits are enough to make
you gag.
Last, but not least, is Diane Schurr’s
1986 release, Timeless. Although this re
cord is older than the others reviewed in
this month’s column, Schurr was recently
recommended by several wealthy patients
after they caught her bravura performance
at the Masonic Temple. Ah, the delights of
the idle rich!
Timeless is an exploration of a particu
larly American musical past, from Gersh
win to Porter to Ellington to Brubeck. And
the result is not only a collection of songs
whose legacy is timeless, but a perform
ance as well by a singer of incredible range
and sense of style, song and self. In Cole
Porter’s “ Easy to Love” Schurr bounces
around from one note to another, at appa
rently odd intervals, with an orchestra go
ing a separate direction. So it appears that
she also has an amazing sense of pitch as
well. Jazz afficionados will be in pig
heaven.
So let’s crank up the sound — unless
you are next door — and get those feet a’
movin’. It’s summer!
•
roozE
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Just Out, 29 July, 1987
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