Early Lightfoot/Sunday Concert - Gordon Lightfoot

Advantages: Some nice pop
Disadvantages: But a lot of this is very obscure

...R Dean Taylor was a musical rarity. Plenty of Canadian singer-songwriters have made their mark (Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Bryan "Pizza Face" Adams and the deeeeeeeelish Avril L), but it is very unusual for that act to be associated with Berry Gordy's proud black hit-machine Motown. That's because after making his name in his hometown Toronto, in the early 1960's Taylor crossed the water to Detroit and was eventually hired by the record company that shook complacent white America, where he worked with Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland (part of the famous Holland / Dozier / Holland songwriting team of countless US and UK hits). His songwriting credits include Love Child by Diana Ross and All I Need by the Tempations. Come the mid to late 60's he was making records as well as writing them. Motown had... Read review

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Advantages: Wonderful source material; appealing arrangements with long shelf life; excellent sound; BBC Concert Orchestra.
Disadvantages: Sharon's violin, Corrs' vocal harmonies underused; bubblegum track, 'Old Town'.

...vocals, with the others supplying harmonic back-ups. Andrea also plays the tin whistle, while Sharon saws away on her fiddle, Caroline drubs on the bodhràn, and Jim attacks both guitars and keyboards. Uillean pipes, low whistles and accordions are liberally used, together with guitars, mandolins, a piccolo trumpet and saxophones. Among the many noteworthy tracks on 'Home', it's Richard Thompson's 'Dimming of the Day' that really stands out. A perfectly crafted song, its acoustic guitar, vocal harmonies and subdued strings happily converge to produce that sweet melancholy so fondly reminiscent of a Gordon Lightfoot tune. 'Heart Like a Wheel', penned by Canadian Annie McGarrigle, will be familiar to those acquainted with Linda Ronstadt's version, recorded early in her rock music phase. Here Andrea's heartfelt vocal, backed by keyboards... Read review

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Advantages: Trademark MacLachlan vocals, arrangements, stunningly beautiful, sophisticated pop in tracks 1,2,4-9.
Disadvantages: Some dreadful techno-remixes and cover—a travesty of MacLachlan's true musical gifts--apparently with her blessing.

...on the supreme excellence of the tune itself. Gloomy Sunday: The sonic clarity and resonance here belies its "live" nature. We have only Sarah's smooth, elastic alto-soprano and guitar onstage sometime in 1991 in Vancouver—unalloyed, beautifully cool, melancholic, almost elegiac pop that shifts oddly to hopeful optimism in a bridge near the end. You can almost hear a pin drop, the audience is caught in a rapt silence. Song for a Winter's Night: Smooth, unapologetic in its romanticism sans the sappiness, this arrangement of a Gordon Lightfoot original is as soothing and comforting as a lover's tender caresses. Sarah's strong vocals dominate, as they should. Blue: This Joni Mitchell original (like Lightfoot, another of MacLachlan's seminal influences) is given its rightful due by Sarah's deeply felt, a cappellaesque vocal and subdued piano... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful