Customer Reviews

Am I Still in Your Heart

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A mere 3 years out of the nightmare of heroin addiction, Chuck produces this debut; in a sense a debut to his new life. It lacks attempts to regain prominence from his Three Dog Night days. This is fresh material and "Are You Still In My Heart", "Mama", and "None Of Us Are Free" are right down powerful. This is an artistically creative release and carries with it some of the sadness from all his lost years which, by the way, is still betrayed by Chuck's eyes on the CD cover. If you looking for cutesy pop tunes you won't like this but if you like depth to your music you'll find serious depth here.

This collection is a real 'pot-pourri' of musical stylings. With such a varied bunch of songs, many singers would have been left wanting, which, I guess, just underlines the vocal talents of this guy. Without putting anyone down, I LOVE 3DN, still very polished and entertaining, but they seem to have stagnated and are content with re-hashing their old stuff, whereas Mr Negron has embraced something new.

I'm not saying you will like all of the tracks, there are a couple of frivolous 'shorts'(Intros they are called) that should have been left out, but the whole production oozes quality and the way that this man can go from a normal ballad tenor to a screaming falsetto is just amazing.

To me, the two standout tracks are 'Soul to Soul', which has some great harmonies, and an unbelievable cover of 'How 'bout us', which, to me, eclipses the original by a mile.

The version of Cream's 'I feel Free' is nothing short of brilliant, and 'Voices' shows off just that. Not a particularly strong song, but the vocals....Aaaah.

In all, a good, but not great CD but well worth the money.

This last statement doesn't have much to do with the CD, but if anything, having recently seen both 3 Dog Night and Chuck in concert separately, I can say that Cory and Danny don't need Chuck, and Chuck certainly doesn't need Cory and Danny. Some might long for a reunion- I have my doubts if it will happen, and if it does, I don't think it would be too productive music wise. Stop the 'in-fighting'(if there is any) and move on guys...you're all too classy for that.

If you are still a fan of TDN...this album is great!! Chuck's version of "Voices" is now my favorite!! Buy it!!

Chuck Negron's personal challenges have been documented elsewhere so there's no need to rehash them here. Besides tight vocal arrangements, one of the things that made Three Dog Night stand out was their diversity of material and their vocal interpretation of those compositions. The same can be heard on Chuck's solo venture here. A nice variety of styles sung with the passion we know he is capable of. There's guest performances from Three Dog Night's organist Jimmy Greenspoon and Latin soul vocalist Tata Vega. Former TDN drummer Floyd Sneed provided the background illustrations for the cd. Three tracks deserving of heavy play in your Ipod or mp3 player are "Soul to Soul," "None of Us Are Free," and "It Was You." Chuck Negron may have been down, but he is in no way out! He still tours and is in great voice!

Chuck, with the Three Dog Night, sang tenor and baritone all in one song. Now he mainly sings tenor, almost soprano. I am sure he wants to steer from being viewed as being stuck in the past by changing his singing methods. But man...what made the Three Dog Night great is that they had 3 different singing styles. But...they had enough similarities to truly harmonize with each other. His background singers sound so much different from him that they are unable to harmonize with him. Chuck, love you man! But get back-up singers that you can harmonize with. Or have no back-up singers at all. Do more baritone or in between a tenor/baritone thing.

Hope this review helps someone.