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Feels Like Home

Linda Ronstadt - Feels Like Home Audio CD

A fair review of the Linda Ronstadt "Feels Like Home" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Linda Ronstadt reviews here, or go back to the Linda Ronstadt tabs.

Band: Linda Ronstadt
Title: Feels Like Home
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-03-14
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Waiting 2: Walk On 3: High Sierra 4: After the Gold Rush 5: Blue Train 6: Feels Like Home 7: Teardrops Will Fall 8: Morning Blues 9: Women Cross the River 10: Lover's Return

Softspoken and relaxable Ronstad magic
Track 5 The Blue Train has the magic of Ronstad softspoken and halfway wispering voice which realy tickle youre soul. Yeees. Emmylou Harris on the background vocals, fills out the magic with here voice too. There is a certain dreamy feel over this song. Pure Ronstad magic. The other tracks are filled with more ups and downs. Track 2 Walk on the more fast moving song with Allison Krauss on the fiddle is anyway a good listen to . But it is the moody feel of Ronstad voice that runs
trough the whole CD that gives the magic a certain touch, that lifts up more anonymous songwriting. On the weaker side we have the cover of the Neil Young masterpeace After the Gold rush which break the moody feeling. It doesn`t fit
here voice in a way. The Randy Newmann song Feels like Home Track 6 has much of the same problems. But hey, soon we are back into gear with Track 7 Teardrops will fall, which has the rhythm and feel of a good hit song. But how can you go wrong when you get help from Allison Krauss and Emmylou Harris ? If the whole CD was up to Track 5 The Blue Train standard it would have been a solid 5 star.
But anyway Linda Ronstad as an artist put some "musical angeldust" in your ears. .

Into everything
These songs are all in English, but the title song, "Feels Like Home" by Randy Newman comes from his version of "Faust," a very German theme. I appreciate things that are familiar, and music is an area of art that allows people to think small and never try to appreciate anything as large as the Wagner Ring cycle of (German) operas. Linda played Margaret (the poorest, nicest and most beautiful girl in South Bend) in the CD version released in 1995, but Bonnie Raitt sang the best song in the show on that CD, and this version by Linda with Emmylou Harris singing some harmony, with the title of the song on the cover, does everything these musicians could do to steal this song. This version might be more popular than the Randy Newman collection because the rest of the songs live up to the title so well.

"The Waiting" by Tom Petty is a great way to start anything. When I say the music is familiar, I truly mean: where have you been if you have not heard this one? The final song, "Lover's Return" by A. P. Carter from 1935 has Alison Krauss on fiddle, and that should seem familiar from the best movie soundtracks lately, as well as from "Walk On" (the second song on this CD).

"After the Gold Rush" (1970) by Neil Young has an exciting piano part, updated with string synthesizers, glass armonica, and an orchestra for this recording, which features trio vocals: Valerie Carter, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. I think I previously heard a jug band version of "Morning Blues. " "The Blue Train" has the expected theme: "I'm taking it one way to nowhere Afraid you might be there . . . "

I've had the album so long, all the songs seem familiar now, and that was what they were aiming for when they released it. This is music you can live with as well as through.

One of Linda's best albums from the 90s
Many of the tracks were recorded in 1994, intended for the sequel to the popular collaboration album with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton from 1987 called TRIO. There is a bit of a backstory with this album. There were label issues and behind the scenes shuffles, and ultimately TRIO II did not get a release until early 1999. However, many of the tracks appear on this album, with slightly different arrangements. Those songs that appear on both include "High Sierra", "Lover's Return", "Feels Like Home", "After The Goldrush" and "The Blue Train". Some might say that's a bad thing, but they are all great songs, and it's nice to hear them as a Trio on one hand, then to just hear Linda's versions. FEELS LIKE HOME is a nice, if overlooked, album. It opens with an inspired cover of Tom Petty's "The Waiting", which is an instant highlight. The songs that ended up on TRIO II that are also on this disc, are highlights. The whole album is pretty relevent, and she still sounds pretty good.

Great Album
Actually, if one listens closely, this CD marks the beginning of the decline in Linda's vocal ability. In my opinion, this is the best of Linda's efforts over the last decade or so. Don't get me wrong, at her worst, Linda can still sing circles around any of the so-called "Divas" of today. Still, it is a little depressing to hear this once-strong and soaring instrument, begin to decline in quality--which are resulting from her health condition, I can only surmise. Every album Linda has done since FLH (there have only been a handful) sound as though Linda is simply tired and disinterested. Her voice still sounds good, but Linda just no longer has the ability to make it soar like she used to.

I understand that she is supposed to release a new jazz project some time this year, which I eagerly await.

An excellent country album
Her later recordings had little or no connection with country except for her two Trio albums with Dolly and Emmylou - and that's where this album comes in. Linda has recorded many types of music, achieving some credibility in country music through her country-influenced early recordings. The second Trio album had been recorded but not released. At the time it looked as if it would never be released, so Linda decided to do her own country album (this one) using half the songs from Trio II, although the versions here are different from the Trio II versions. The songs from Trio II are High sierra (an excellent ballad), After the gold rush (the Neil Young classic), The blue train (another fine ballad), Feels like home (written by Randy Newman) and Lover's return (an old Carter family song from the 1930's). Emmylou sings backup on four of the five songs here but Dolly is nowhere to be found.

The other five songs are all covers, including The waiting (a Tom Petty song) and Walk on (an up-tempo Matraca Berg song - Matraca originally recorded it with the title Baby walk on). Teardrops will fall and Morning blues are also great songs.

Perhaps the best of the lot is Women across the river, written and first recorded by the obscure but talented David Olney. It may be that the river in question is the Rio Grande and that the women are Mexican, but the song could apply to any river that separates a poor community from a better-off community.

This is an outstanding country album from one of America's best and most versatile singers.

You can see a complete list of all Linda Ronstadt discography, or go back to the Linda Ronstadt tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.