I was really, really surprised at how good this CD is.
As a Southern girl who grew up with a love of all kinds of music, including Soul and Country, I'm pretty open minded when it comes to music.
Admittedly, my taste for country runs more along the lines of Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline Collection, Johnny Cash (
At Folsom Prison), Porter Wagner, Jim Reeves, Hank Williams, Sr., vintage Dolly Parton and the like, with few exceptions.
So on to Richie. Surely he is not the first Black artist who sang R&B, Soul or Pop who eventually expressed his love of country music through their art.
Ray Charles (
Ray Charles: The Complete Country & Western Recordings 1959-1986), Bobby Womack, Sly Stone, Donnie Hathaway, even Babyface, and I'm sure I have not exhausted the list.
Although I loved the Country songs and/or Country undertones that the above artists expressed in their work, something about Richie got stuck in my craw.
I so loved the Commodores, what a Soulful group they were. And when they recorded Sail On and Easy, I enjoyed those tunes as well -- they were country songs to my ear.
But what threw me off about Richie was his foray into Pop of the "Bubble Gum" variety. Nothing wrong with it, it just was not my cup of tea. I would have rather he became a Country singer rather that a singer of Pop, (but that's just me.)
So now we come to his new album.
I just hang my head in shame when I admit that I considered not even giving the guy a chance, but when I did, I was glad.
Typically speaking, when artists revisit their music in the recording studio they tend to make a mess of it. Either because of poor production, trying to update their sound, declining vocals, or all of the above. As another reviewer has stated, the songs do sound lusher and more substantial than the original recordings. This is music from 30 some odd years ago, yet it sounds as fresh, if not even better than when it first came out.
The production, arrangement, musicianship, the fact that Richie has cared for his voice well, and the choice of contributing artists come together to make this an enjoyable CD. And the fact that like Babyface and Donny Hathaway, he is a songwriter.
Sail On, Easy, Deep River Woman are my favorites.
Although All Night Long has never been even close to being a favorite song of mine, this version was better than the orginal, IMHO.
There is only one contributing artist who shall remain nameless that I would cross off the list, but that is just a personal preference. Otherwise I am very happy that I gave Richie a chance.
I encourage you to do the same.