MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ROXANNE POTVIN - FOR DREAMING

When someone has spent five years between albums, you assume the worst; burned out, uninspired, on drugs, frustrated with the music business, writer's block, huge fights with record label/bandmates/spouse, these are just some of the regular reasons. So it's a rare thing indeed when someone like Potvin spends the five years actually growing, and working on their craft, in preparation for the next release.


No, she wasn't just practicing guitar and polishing lyrics. Potvin worked in a recording studio, and took proper courses in engineering. Wow, education! That's pretty sensible. Of course, when all that was happening, she picked up lots of inspiration for making her own records, and kept her radar on for her next batch of writing.


Potvin has changed and grown dramatically since her first recordings, when she quickly became known as one of the young, bright lights of blues. But with 2011's Play, she ventured into power pop with the help of producer Steve Dawson, with lots of playful moments, funky feel, and a surprise with a cover of Right Said Fred's I'm Too Sexy.


For Dreaming sees an entirely new feel, this time with the exuberance tempered for intimacy. although still in the pop vein. This is an album that could only be made in Montreal, with its instrumental experimentation and quirky outlook. Potvin's new production knowledge brings in lots of interesting sound combinations, lots of beautiful moments, and a warmth from her lead and backing vocals.


Her lyrics are just as dynamic, and singular. Prairie Sunrise is a stunning track, Potvin describing a trip by train that served to open her eyes to how closed she had become, compared to the wide-open vistas. Figuring It Out points a finger at someone who can't get their shit together: "Have you figured out your ex/have you figured out dependence/Have you figured out the times you've been rejected/How long are you gonna spend/Figuring it out."


The intimacy of the recording matches the closeness examined in the lyrics, whether its between a couple, or in solitude, the closeness with your thoughts being alone. The beauty, well, that's the sound of somebody who has learned how to make the sounds in her heart come alive.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: STEVE DAWSON - SOLID STATES AND LOOSE ENDS

Dawson follows up the widely-acclaimed 2014 album Rattlesnake Cage pretty quickly by switching gears. That last album was all-acoustic and all-instrumental, showing his wild guitar skills. This time out, everything rootsy-bluesy is on the table, the singing is back, so is the band, and they trot out plenty of electric instruments when needed.


Just to show the difference, Dawson starts off the disc with a big soul number, Loose Ends, which sounds like Bill Withers fronting Little Feat. But that's just one trick for the multi-influenced performer/producer. California Saviour sees him back on acoustic, but with some pretty nifty accompaniment, including a ghostly pedal steel, on a track that could have been on those Wilco/Billy Bragg/Woody Guthrie albums. Over 14 cuts, we get about 14 different styles.


The chief weapon here is the killer band, and the fact they can handle all the curves Dawson guides them through. He has the Blackie and the Rodeo Kings rhythm section of John Dymond and Gary Craig on bass and drums, pretty much roots A-list on either side of the border now. On Top Of The World features fiddler Fats Kaplan from Jack White's outfits, who also adds viola, mandolin and accordion when called on. Keyboard man Kevin McKendree was Delbert McClinton's band leader, and shines on several tracks. Plus there are gospel flavours added from backing vocals by the McCrary Sisters, and complimentary harmonies from Keri Latimer.


Dawson's back in soul mode on Final Words, with some stinging electric slide, and some smooth horns. But all you really need to hear to know that Dawson is an awesome player is the old number Riley's Henhouse Door. Picking and sliding his way through the fun barnyard farce, Dawson proves he's a modern master, understanding how the music got from then to now, and that he can handle it all.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: IKE & TINA TURNER - ICON

The crimes of Ike Turner were well-documented later in life by Tina Turner, and he went to his grave vilified. It has put people in the awkward position of not feeling good about buying music with his name attached. I guess the best way to deal with this is to consider it's a lot more about Tina than Ike, and as much as people admire her comeback days, the real killer performances come from the '70's and before.


These single Icon sets aren't meant to be definitive, just introductory collections. They stick to the greatest hits, which cuts to the chase, 11 incendiary vocals from Tina (and oh ya, production and ideas from Ike). Proud Mary is the most famous, with unbelievable energy. There are more covers that rival, and in some cases, surpass the originals, including a charged Come Together, and nastier version of Sly Stone's I Want To Take You Higher.


Because the covers provided the most hits, there isn't enough room for their own songwriting to be fully represented, but the duo's first hit, the Ike-penned 1960 cut A Fool In Love shows how even the young Anna Mae Bullock had the goods. Never a prolific writer, Tina did however come up with a true gem in the autobiographical Nutbush City Limits, hometown pride shining through.


But the very best song features just Tina in everything but name only. Ike doesn't appear on the monumental River Deep-Mountain High, except it was still credited to Ike and Tina. Instead, the producer and co-writer was someone even more notorious than Ike, Phil Spector, who had decided Tina was the perfect singer for his wall of sound, and that he had the perfect hit single. Instead, it was a complete stiff in America, reaching only #88, although it was a smash in England. Spector was so devastated, he quit music for two years. Now it's considered a landmark song, and of course, features one of the greatest vocals ever recorded.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MATTHEW BARBER & JILL BARBER - THE FAMILY ALBUM

It's no secret there's magic when family sings together, and here's more proof of that. The siblings bring out the best in each other, plus sound relaxed and fully enjoying the experience. That they waited to make the duo album makes the experience that much more special.


Before hearing the album, I probably would have had a hard time imagining what it might sound like, as the two have had somewhat different career paths. But now that the 11 cuts are here, it makes perfect sense, and is a fine mix of what they do, and what their common loves are.


The Barbers decided they wouldn't take this lightly, and instead each wrote new material for the set, plus they spent part of last year touring, and will again this summer. There's a lot of heart and sentiment in the originals, and that fits the family theme. Her One True Love is about fighting for that great love, to show what you're made of ("Your one true love, if you believe in that sort of thing, like I do"). His touching Grandpa Joe traces a family member and the mark he left, while realizing how much the next generations don't know about his life.


The covers chosen match those family themes, and keep an acoustic/folk vibe going. Don Williams' If I Needed You is handled gently, with calm harmonies, almost like a Christmas song. Neil Young's Comes A Time is also taken at about half-speed, a lovely version with piano, fiddle and mandolin, plus the Barber shop vocals.


The great surprise here is how deep the pair went for more inspired covers. The largely unheralded Bobby Charles (See You Later, Alligator) has his sleepy Southern theme I Must Be In A Good Place Now turned into a grand, close-harmony version. Even more obscure is a Gene MacLellan number, Song To A Young Seagull, here with bluegrass vibes. And Ian Tyson's Summer Wages isn't heard much these days, another smart choice.


This could have been a bunch of old favourite songs and obvious choices, made over a weekend, but the care and commitment really stands out, and I think it's the secret to why the album works so very well.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SAM CASH & THE ROMANTIC DOGS - TONGUE-IN-CHEEK VOWS

Not all singer-songwriters have to be mellow about it, and Cash lets his Dogs loose on this set of guitar rockers. Smart lyrics a big, joyous sound to play along with, with most songs coming in at a concise, three to four minute range, sounding like an album full of singles.


Producer Ian Blurton does a stellar job on the mix, with a great big bass sound up front, lots of crunch, and great, vintage 70's/80's ambiance. The band has put together some intricate and explosive mixes, lots of imaginative tricks and fun moments that make each song a joy to follow. Those are the moments that make an album memorable, where you can't wait to play it again, to hear that little bit in one place, a favourite moment on the next, and the next.


There's the na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na lead-in vocals on You Can't Hurt Me; the elongated closing freak-out on Radio Waves; the powerful, punching bridge in That Was The Summer, so catchy a rocker that I just can't wait for June to make it this summer's theme song. Cash has already proven himself a strong writer, but on his third album and second with the Romantic Dogs, the bunch of them have made a great band album.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SUMMERTIME - WILLIE NELSON SINGS GERSHWIN

Oh Willie, you old softie.  Maybe all that dope has gone to your head over the years, but you sure are a sentimental one. After all, you did the original retro-crooner album, Stardust, back in '78, way before Buble, Rod and all the smoothies.  Wouldn't you know that craggy voice was just perfect for the classic songbook numbers.  He even did a Gershwin tune back then, Someone To Watch Over Me.

Some 38 years later, everybody and Garfunkel has had their shot at those standards, but Willie still likes them enough to do this full album of George and Ira. He's still the best, too. Phrasing, baby. The very best, from Bing to Bob Dylan, win with phrasing over pitch, every time. These 90-year old artifacts still sound contemporary because of the way Willie sings them, which lets the brilliance of the melody and lyrics come through.


Having grown up with these songs, Nelson sounds natural with even the toughest of Gershwin rhymes, those in that scandalous skeptic's tune, It Ain't Necessarily So, which debates the bigger fish stories in the Bible. Only Willie could today pull off the rhyme scheme "Oh Jonah, he lived in the whale/Oh Jonah, he lived in the whale/For he made his home in/That fish's abdomen/Oh Jonah, he lived in the whale."


Now, Sinatra, he was a great Gershwin interpreter for sure, as well as Ella and a few other fellas. But for a modern sound, Willie will do, won't he?

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: LORETTA LYNN - FULL CIRCLE

Lynn's last album, the Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose in 2004, was a big hit for her, introducing her to a new generation of rock fans, so you would have thought she would have followed that up right away. But instead, the past decade she's been doing occasional sessions with her daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and Johnny and June's kid, John Carter Cash, producing in the House of Cash cabin studio. Over time, these recordings became a kind of musical autobiography, as Lynn went back to some of her old songs, as well as mountain music that influenced her career. As well, she wrote some new ones, and found more current covers. She's revealed these 13 cuts are part of at least 100 recorded, with the next album's songs already chosen.


Bring it on. Full Circle sees Lynn sounding as great as she ever has, her voice full and inspiring at 83. The kids, Cash and Russell, have recorded in her a spare manner; not the bare minimum of many of the Rick Rubin sessions with Johnny Cash, but rather the sound of acoustic music of earlier country days. The old Carter Family favourite, Black Jack David, is just guitars, bass, mandolin and vocals, and Lynn is clearly in her element. The most produced cuts add a little electric guitar and pedal steel, but still retain the acoustic bed.


Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven ("but nobody wants to die") is a remake of the song she wrote and recorded in 1965, but sounds better than ever now, with piano and a bluegrass-gospel feel. Her update of the classic hit Fist City doesn't have the disarming chipper feel of the controversial original, but still packs a punch (sorry) in the less-produced style.


Lynn's picked out a few favourite cuts as well, including a version of T. Graham Brown's 90's cut Wine Into Water, a great lyric which she makes her own. As she's always done, Lynn sings about important issues in her life, knowing they are something her fans understand as well. In this case, it's about dealing with the effects of alcoholism on a family, and as she's written about before, she saw that first-hand with her late husband, Mooney. Lynn's fans have always known she sings the truth, no matter how much it hurt.


There are a couple of celebrity cameos, one from Willie Nelson, a duet on Lay Me Down, plus a humble turn from Elvis Costello, singing the backing vocals on another new Lynn cut, Everything It Takes. If the rest of the hundred cuts in the can match these, it's going to be a joy.