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Nat ‘King’ Cole tribute wraps it up with a bow

George Benson Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat ‘King’ Cole
George Benson Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat ‘King’ Cole

George Benson

Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat ‘King’ Cole

Concord

A-

George Benson was established as a formidable jazz guitarist when he found his voice as a singer with a striking, jazzy cover of Leon Russell’s “This Masquerade.” That song transformed Benson into a million-selling hit maker.

Like Benson, Nat “King” Cole also started as an instrumentalist and transitioned into a compelling singer with hits such as “Nature Boy,” “Unforgettable” and “Mona Lisa.” On this tribute, Benson’s voice and guitar sparkle on Cole’s heartfelt songs.

Benson’s approach and the arrangements give these songs a fresh interpretation. Most importantly, he injects heart and a playful spirit into songs such as “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” and “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” The lovely “When I Fall in Love,” a duet with Idina Menzel, is a delight. The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra and guest Wynton Marsalis enrich the album.

Tribute albums are rarely memorable. Benson shows how to do it right - as tribute and good listening experience.

Hot tracks: “Just One of Those Things,” “When I Fall in Love,” an aching “Smile,” the swinging “Route 66.”

  • ELLIS WIDNER

Audra McDonald

Go Back Home

Nonesuch

A-

Five-time Tony winner Audra McDonald’s latest has some very recognizable names in the list of song composers: Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Comden and Green. But, except for The Sound of Music’s “Edelweiss,” the songs aren’t the first ones that may spring to your mind when you hear those names.

Most of these are songs from musicals and most are obscure, layered and mature.They tell tales of home and love in their various forms.

McDonald is a Broadway star with a rich, beautiful voice and well-honed storytelling skills.

She ably tackles songs like the hilariously bitter “Baltimore” and the heartbreaking “I’ll Be Here,” a tale tied to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The title track is powerful and longing, and she rattles off the wordy “The Glamorous Life” and the stirring “First You Dream” with ease.

Hot tracks: “Go Back Home,” “Baltimore.”

  • JENNIFER NIXON

Natalie Maines

Mother

Columbia

C

I listened to Natalie Maines’ debut solo album at least five times before I could even vaguely feel familiar with any of its songs, most of them covers from the likes of Eddie Vedder, Patty Griffin and Jeff Buckley. That tells me this is not a memorable album.

Maines, best known as a member of the Grammy Award-winning Dixie Chicks (who alienated country music fans when Maines told a British audience in 2003 she was ashamed that then-President George W. Bush was from Texas), wanted to head in a more rock-related direction. I can’t say she succeeded; The Chicks crank it out with the same energetic degree of vocal competence and a bit more fiddle.

Only two songs from this new release have had any lasting reverberations: a haunting cover of Pink Floyd’s moody “Mother” (which gives the album its name) and “Take It on Faith,” co-written by Maines, a yearning narrative about taking risks in a relationship that contains a passionate chorus: “Take it on faith/ That I’ll be there/When the pain comes/And I’ll take it all on faith/That you will try, try not to run/When it’s hard, so hard.”

It’s the only original song on the album. Maybe she should write more of them the next time around.

Hot tracks: “Lover You Should’ve Come Over,” “I’d Run Away.”

  • KAREN MARTIN

Demi Lovato

Demi

Hollywood

B

This is actually tolerable when it’s not really good. Sure, it’s kiddie-dance-pop as you would expect from an ex-camper in Camp Rock, but it sure goes down smooth. The songs are about the trauma of love (like there was any other subject), but I bet there are millions who will eventually know the words to “Heart Attack.”

And why not? This isn’t a risk-taking album or a report from the front lines of the clubs - instead it’s just catchy songs that Demi Lovato belts out in a way that’s in service to the material and not a diva-in-training audition. Lovato could have used some kind of curveball - a rocker or unexpected cover - but instead it does what it does, which turns out to be a small triumph.

Hot tracks: “Heart Attack,” “Shouldn’t Come Back,” “Neon Lights.”

-WERNER TRIESCHMANN

Iron & Wine

Ghost on Ghost

Nonesuch

B-

The rapturous response a lot of critics have experienced upon listening to Iron & Wine’s latest, the relatively cheery Ghost on Ghost, eluded me on initial listenings. The airy, instrumentally layered songs sounded pleasant enough, but didn’t have staying power. Hearing them a few more times revealed more impressive content, although it’s sometimes hard to make out the oblique, nonlinear lyrics.

Sam Beam, 38, who performs as Iron & Wine, includes 12 songs about a couple’s relationship issues in this new release, recorded live with a rhythm section in a Brooklyn studio over the space of two weeks. The album’s title, he says in a New York Times interview, “acknowledges we are not only physically on one another but we are combining souls as well. I wish I could take credit for the line. I stole it from James Wright, the poet.”

Earlier albums recorded at his Texas hill country farmhouse studio include The Shepherd’s Dog (2007), which offers songs that each have a dog as the subject, and Kiss Each Other Clean (2011), with most of the songs having something to do with a river. Each took nearly nine months to put together. Ghost on Ghost is a new approach for Beam. If you like it, enjoy it while you can; he seems to like reinventing himself with every new recording.

Hot tracks: “Lovers’ Revolution,” “The Desert Babbles.”

  • KAREN MARTIN

Style, Pages 27 on 06/18/2013

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