REFLECTIONSDenni Lee HayesIndie6-out-of-10Denni Lee Hayes is a country singer out of Calgary who has recently released her debut country album Reflections.
This is an album which you can tell has been a long time dream for Hayes. The music has that feel of being heartfelt to the artist, although it doesn't necessarily resonate with the listener in quite the same way.
As regular readers will know I am a huge proponent of a performer putting their best song at the start of a CD, to make sure listeners are hooked.
Well sadly Just A Cup of Coffee, the lead cut here is not that particularly strong, or memorable. A far better choice would have been Little Black Dancin' Dress, a song with some old style fiddle work. It's a throwback number which has radio airplay potential.
I Promise You This, with Stan Hitchcock adding some male support vocals, is another older-style country song which is among the best on the album.
The country music field is a crowded one these days, and a singer/songwriter really needs to find a way to carve out a niche and Hayes hasn't really done anything here which will make her memorable beyond the general masses of country music.
Check it out at www.dennileehayes.com- CALVIN DANIELS
READY TO FLYCellesteIndie8-out-of-10I suppose Celleste might best be described as something of a throwback, at least in terms of her approach to music to her debut album.
When she moves into a slower, moving song such as Best I Can, there is a definite touch of Blondie in her vocals. This is a true gem of a song. There is a ton of emotion in the way this lady carries the moving lyrics.
In generalist terms Celleste's style is an older rock one. There are elements of blues, folk, pop and straight ahead rock, which is reminiscent of the tunes of the 70s.
Take the song Drive. There are riffs here which speak to the Eagles in their hey day.
This lady has obviously spent a lot of time in her Montreal home listening to old 8-tracks, or at least disks of older rock, and she has done a nice job of making that older style her own.
Interestingly, enough years have passed that now the approach comes across as rather fresh.Falling has a bit of a Whitney Houston thing going on, and is another song where Celleste really lets loose with the emotion of the music.
It is also impressive Celleste has chosen to record four songs which extend more than four minutes, including the CD title cut which wraps up the album and rolls out at more than eight minutes. Such songs speak to wanting to play the music, and not worry about being radio friendly. I like seeing that from an artist.
As for the cut Ready To Fly, the artist release talks about it having a Supertramp element to its approach, and she is right. An interesting effort indeed.
Overall Celleste has a definite throwback feel to her music, and that works just fine for me.Check her out at www.celleste.com- CALVIN DANIELS
Past reviews are archived online at http://calmardan.blogspot.com/
