Customer Reviews

Painted Desert Serenade

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Have listened to this CD non-stop since purchasing it after hearing "Jessie" for the first time on the radio. Not one bad song on this CD. "Beautiful in My Eyes", "Beau's Radio Love Line" and "Picture Postcards from LA" rank as my favorite. When he released "Delilah Blue", purchased immediately and felt there was NO comparison to PDS. Recently gave it another listen, and after getting used to a different style, listen to as much as PDS.

Thanks to the postings here about his website, I ordered both CD's offered there and those who can't get enough of PDS, these two releases are songs in the style of the ones on PDS. He writes on his site that he is working on his 3rd Studio album and should be out the first part of next year. Can't Wait!!

This is a fine album...I just bought it recently, and there's not a bad song in it. Joshua Kaddison melds soft, intricate melodies full of wonderful piano riffs and soft string instrument notes and blends them with lyrics that tell the stories of romantic dreams and lovesick souls. As one of those lovesick souls, I appreciate his sensitive touch a lot. He begins and ends the album with two songs about a girl named Jessie, "Jessie" and "Georgia Rain." "Beautiful In My Eyes" is a wonderful song, fit for any blessed couple. As a resident of LA from the south, I appreciate "Picture Postcards From L.A." and I love "Painted Desert Serenade" and "Beau's All Night Radio Love Line." If you're into romantic adult contemporary music, you can't go wrong with this album...It makes an excellent gift to, say, a girlfriend or someone you want to be your significant other...fine work...

This album is more than music, more than songs, you get so many different pictures from every line of every song on this album. This is one album that you never get tired of hearing and in a time where music is 2 or 3 different lyrics and synthized sounds it is so wonderful to be able to experience someone who has true talent and the ability to make you reflect why enjoying his musical gifts. I have this album, Deliah Blue and the 2 ("Saturday Night in Storyville" and "Troubadour In A TimeQuake").from his personal WEB site. He is truly one of the all time greatest talents to ever hit the music industry.

If you like songs that tell a story, this CD is for you. Joshua Kadison has an amazing gift, the characters in his songs are so vivid that the listener can picture them. He also strikes emotional cords that are incredably true, from the desperate love of "Jesse" to the mature love of "Painted Desert Serenade," to the poignent greif of a child in "Moma's Arms" to the loneliness of "Invisable Man." This album is a must for anyone who heard "Jesse" on the radio, if only to hear the the wonderful surprize end track, "Georgia Rain," which finishes the story started in "Jesse." I loved it when it first came out, and was so excited to find it again. It has lived in my CD player longer than any other CD I have, and I never mind having one of these songs stuck in my head. For all those who remember "Beautiful in My Eyes" from someone's wedding, to tell you how good this album is, it is one of the weaker songs on the album. Well worth your money, and I also recommend you check out his other stuff, via his website.

It's not often that the lyrics of an album grab me right away, but Joshua Kadison's ability to put his finger on the quirkiness of relationships and events without becoming hackneyed stands out in the song writing business. That he also has a topnotch musical ear and solid delivery simply makes the package sweeter.

'Painted Desert Serenade' is Kadison's debut album. Two songs from it, "Jessie" and "Beautiful In My Eyes" have gone on to be hits. He has a pleasant country/folk voice (a bit James Taylorish) and keeps his production value well short of extreme, which allows the listener to discover that the lyrics are actually about something.

Other good songs, beside those aforementioned are... Well, the truth is they are all good, from the poignant cynicism of "Beau's All Night Radio Love Line" to the introspective questioning of "Invisible Man." And then there's the heartfelt loss of "Mama's Arms." If you like indy singers with a folksy twist, an engaging delivery, and lot's of content, then buy this. And listen, listen, listen.

As a classical music lover, I'm pretty picky when it comes to stuff outside my favorite genre. I've always found many pop love songs, esp. those by Elton John, to be superficial and vulgar and nothing more than crowd pleasers. But Joshua Kadison is one of the few artists who seem to really sing out of the heart. "Beautiful in My Eyes" is my very favorite love song, in any language as a matter of fact (yours truly is multi-lingual). Maybe it's because of my own experience in the past, that it touches more than a chord. (LOL.) But the other songs are deep and touching, too, and this is one album that I've listened to countles times but never got tired of.

i first heard "beautiful in your eyes" when i was in college and loved every single song on the album. i think this is one of the best albums i have ever owned becuase each song touches me in some way.joshua kadison is very talented and it's a shame that he is not more well known and has not produced more albums.i truly believe this is an album that every one should have as part of their collection.

I've been a Joshua Kadison fan for 13 years... unfortunately, he's hard to come by. I've always thought of him as a nice blend of Elton John and Billy Joel, with a touch of John Mellencamp Americana for good measure... a combo you would think couldn't miss right? Yet he's never really broken into the mainstream. Painted Desert Serenade is an outstanding find!

My mother taped "Beautiful In My Eyes" off the radio, and played it for me, back when it came out in '92. At first I thought it was just another slow love song (which at that time I wasn't interested in hearing), but then that summer when I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain on a trip to California, I was on line for Congo Rapids and saw the video for "Beautiful In My Eyes" up on the video monitors. I was like, I know I've heard this song before, and it sounds very good! I then remembered that my Mom had played it for me. I was glad she did.

Well, since then, I have become a hopeless romantic, and this song is my #1 love theme of all time (just ahead of "Angel Eyes" by The Jeff Healey Band). It is one of the few love songs that I sing often at karaoke.

"Jessie" is also a very pretty song. I also like the other hit song "Picture Postcards from L.A," it reminds me of when I was in L.A. in the summer of '92. "When A Woman Cries" is such a beautiful song that it makes ME want to cry when I play it. (By the way, in that very same year- 1992- Joe Cocker recorded it for his album "Night Calls," and did a suitably gruff-but-beautiful version of it.) Overall, there is simply not a bad song on this CD.

Too bad we haven't heard anything new by Mr. Kadison in a long time. I don't know why. He is a very talented songwriter, piano player, and singer. If you truly love and care for someone, and love to express how you feel through song, this is a great CD to get for her...or him. :)

I, too, find this to be my favorite CD. I have had it since the month it came out and I listen to it almost every night while I go to sleep. His soothing vocals and flowing piano accompaniment always seem to calm me and put me in a wonderfully sentimental place. How often do you find an album in which you like every single song?