Linda Ronstadt - Feels Like Home
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Free Music Notes for Feels Like Home
Free Music Review: A work of art
Hit: 5 Stars
Aptly titled, "Feels Like Home" offers a seamless musical blend of bluegrass, folk, and rock recorded with the lush harmonies of herself, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton and presented with unprecedented conviction. The Appalachian tossed salad of musical regality gathered for these sessions influenced Ronstadt's choice of material. She included the Carter Family's sublime "Lover's Return," treats the listener to beautiful, lush harmonies in "High Sierra," eclipses Neil Young's original "After The Gold Rush" and Matraca Berg's "Walk On," and even garnered a hit single with "Blue Train." The real highlight here is Ronstadt's astounding version of Tom Petty's "The Waiting," combining a rock treatment with Ronstadt's sparkling tenor and adding mandolin and fiddle as backing instruments. The result surpasses Petty's original, and was wisely released as a single. Five of these selections appeared in 1995 on the "Trio 2" CD release, but in this case, the waiting was not the hardest part.Free Music Review: It Sure "Feels Like Home"
Hit: 5 Stars
In her own way, Linda Ronstadt has always defied the rules ofthe music business. A popular vocalist with an impeccable ear for songs and arrangements, Ronstadt has long leaped from genre to genre, bucking popular trends and creating new ones. Imagine, a rock star who personified the mellow Southern California sound of the '70s turning to pop standards, traditional Mexican recordings and opera!FEELS LIKE HOME marks the glorious comeback of the Linda Ronstadt that became a superstar in the first place. Returning to her country/bluegrass roots and joined on fivecuts by long-time collaborator Emmylou Harris, Ronstadt has made one of the strongest country-rock recordings of her entire career. The album's spirit is perfectly captured on "Blue Train," a mid-tempo country rocker that is a forlorn affair, immediately enveloping the listener.
That Ronstadt has not abandoned her rock roots or her sharp interpretive skills is evident throughout FEELS LIKE HOME, particularly on the gorgeous cover of Neil Young's "After The Goldrush," as well as the wonderfully understated mandolin and acoustic guitar intro to Tom Petty's "The Waiting"--a song seemingly tailor-made for her. That Ronstadt retains her gift for assembling solid gold musical outfits and arranging them to perfection, can be discerned from the list of virtuoso players who appear on FEELS LIKE HOME.
Free Music Review: Linda is still relevant
Hit: 4 Stars
Say what you will about Linda's excursions into Mariachi and Mambo (though her last two albums in Spanish were three-ring flops). When it comes to turning on the folk/country-rock afterburners, nobody, I mean NOBODY, outdoes Linda. FEELS LIKE HOME is proof of that.I dock the album one star because of the fact that this was intended to be the TRIO II album, which didn't come out until four years later. Five songs on this album ("High Sierra", "After The Gold Rush", "The Blue Train", "Feels Like Home", "Lover's Return") wound up on TRIO II. I really could have done without "High Sierra" and "Lover's Return" being on this album, and have the other three left off of TRIO II. Instead of trying to salvage a trio album that was increasingly resembling a slow-mo car crash, Linda should have tried to make a better solo album.
That said, though, Linda manages to deliver the expected goods with the rest of the album. The first two songs, in particular, are totally unexpected charms: "The Waiting", a 1981 Tom Petty cover in which acoustic guitars and mandolin play a part; and "Walk On", a sassy, country hoedown number by Matraca Berg which is fueled by Linda's twangy, belting soprano and Allison Krauss' fiddle.
Despite its flaws, then, FEELS LIKE HOME proves that even now Linda is still relevant to the music business in an age of self-indulgent Whitney/Britney/Mariah-type divas.
Free Music Review: First-Rate Singer and Interpreter
Hit: 3 Stars
I hope that somewhere in Heaven there's a special place for popular "interpretive" singers, because they surely don't get much respect here on earth. The voice of Linda Ronstadt has been gracing vinyl, tape and CD's for the past four decades. Did I say that properly? Four decades.Feels Like Home defines Ronstadt: what she is, but most importantly, what she is not. She is neither a writer, composer, lyricist or musician. Ronstadt is an "interpreter" with a subtle ability to take the works of others, and make them her own. Her personal "stamp" makes one either forget the original singer/songwriter, or adds a new perspective to an old composition. Tom Petty's rocker `The Waiting' is filled with lonesomeness while maintaining a potent musical anger. Can Linda and the gang pounce on country number? You bet your fiddle they can: see `Walk On.' Her majestic rendition of `After the Gold Rush' (with Valerie Carter and Emmylou Harris) reminds one that Neil Young writes with the soul of an angel. The standout track for me is `The Blue Train.' Ronstadt's voice is a perfect instrument to deliver Jennifer and Tom Kimmel's delicate melody. Unfortunately, the latter half of Feels Like Home is a bit lackluster (Teardrops Will Fall, Morning Blue, Women `Cross the River) undermining an otherwise compelling work. Still, I admire Linda Ronstadt on her own terms: first-rate singer and interpreter.
Free Music Review: This one come's close
Hit: 4 Stars
Some songs from this CD are the best I've heard in a long time from Linda."The Waiting" is the rock and roll Linda of the 70's. I couldn't beleive Linda was going to remake the Tom Petty classic,but this version is great. My Favorite is"Walk On,"and the single from the tape,"Blue Train." But the greatest song on the CD is Randy Newmans "Feels like Home." Randy Newman is one of the greatest song writers of our time.Every year he's nominated for a Oscar,and this song is a materpiece.The way Linda sings his record really makes it worth the price of the CD.