Fancy Blue

Tywanna Jo Baskette | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 12, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Terminus Records
• ASIN: B0000APVCX
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #556,622 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, August 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Fancy Blue (Audio CD)

I first heard Ms. Baskette's unique voice covering Elvis Costello on a tribute CD. I picked up Fancy Blue not knowing much more about her. It is an amazing record. The songs are so intimate and moving it blew me away. Its a cliche, but it really does make you laugh and cry at the same time. Her singing is a soft whisper most of the time (which is not for everyone) but she packs a lot of emotion into every tune. Highly Recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking and heartbreaking..., January 12, 2005

By 

Gorman Bechard "don't ask why" (New Haven, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fancy Blue (Audio CD)

First off, "Fancy Blue" is NOT a country record. Despite Baskette's Nashville roots, and so many plopping her down onto the CW or alt-country bandwagon, this cd clearly belongs in the genre which lays claim to artists like Mirah, Julie Doiron, Joanna Newsom, and their ilk.

That said, this is a haunting record. From the first breath which begins "Happiness & Misery," Baskette takes you on a journey of personal pain and occasional whimsy so startling, that at times you don't know whether to cry or look away.

Her wounds are open, bleeding, her voice at times but a whisper, trying to explain, or apologize, or perhaps understand. Her lyrics are heartbreakingly sad, on every level. Mature but innocent, as is her voice.

I love this record. It stands as one of the three or four best from 2003, and there certainly was no song better than "Happiness & Misery." So unique is Baskette's sound and style on these 19 tracks, that I honestly don't think there's another singer/songwriter like her anywhere.

"Fancy Blue" is a must for any intelligent music collection.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars interesting little tease..., November 6, 2004

By 

Frank Gualtier (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fancy Blue (Audio CD)

Firstly, I agree with everything I see in the previous reviews, both good and bad.

From my own head comes this:

o Beautiful voice. First thought through my head was "I'm listening to Bernadette Peters trying to sing and narrate bizzare urban legends while on laughing gas and there's a band somewhere in the background that thinks it's country but really isn't..."

o Too much talking and not enough singing for my taste. In fairness there are some who love that. Have at it 'some'.

o Believe it or not I actually found a decent amount of value in the simple chord structures and melodies (though it would be nicer if she sung them rather than talked and/or talk-sung them).

o Once again - believe it or not - I also found value in the poetic sinkhole of the lyrics. That is to say, one persons sinkhole is anothers treasure. It wasn't necessarily mine, but there was a consistency to it, I'll give her that.

Put it all together and what it means to me is incredible potential. A voice like that with melodically pleasant perpensity (though not oft realized here) and willingness to put words to paper, in my head, are all the basic ingredients of musical greatness. Trouble is that 'musical greatness' is in the eye of the beholder and I'm just not seeing eye to eye with her on this album.

Nutshell version is that I'd love to hear that same voice do more singing and less talking, that music flow more, and songs that transcend the 7th grade level in lyrical depth.

I did like the dark edge - keeper.

Finally, if all else fails I think she'll have no trouble with a career on the business end of a phone sex service (hot voice).