Liz Mitchell sings so beautifully on her new CD Pretty House that it’s easy to imagine her having tons of training in gospel or opera. Her ethereal voice holds up strongly with minimal accompaniment on each track.
On opening tune “Rain Came Down” Mitchell turns in a vocal finesse that combines her strong, high timbre with an unusually developed self-control. She applies her voice with the right measured amounts of forcefulness in the music and empathy in the lyrics. It’s a treat to the ears as Mitchell works her way through her words, hitting each note with much beauty, caring for the effect she has on each moment. Mitchell has only the finest musicians on her recording. Violinist Joyce Andersen adds a lovely backdrop with her tender emoting with each phrase she bows.
“In My Dreams” puts more emphasis on Mitchell as piano player. Tinkling out a gentle layer of emotion, Mitchell sings over it with tender self-restraint. It is what she holds back that grabs onto the listener’s ears, making you feel the well-spring of feelings she has for the person in her song. Light piano tinkling and a violin gingerly moving alongside it create the texture for her easeful vocal line.
A hauntingly beautiful melody in “Karine” accompanies a sadder tale of a young woman who has passed on. Tastefully explaining the young lady’s fate, Mitchell makes you feel the lost potential of someone who was full of life and joy. Karine was overpowered by nature in an event that underscores the fact of our fleeting human existence. Mitchell’s light piano melody and John Curtis’s mandolin picking create a forlorn backdrop, the essence of the story fleshed out in these melancholy textures.
Mitchell makes a unique weave of instruments to arrive at the color, mood, and tone she seeks. “After All” is a mature love story about a relationship that has lasted 50 years. Mitchell’s voice and Joyce Andersen’s violin and Akane Setiawan’s oboe line and Barry Michaud’s harmony vocal conjure the feeling of a firmly rooted something at down tempo pace but with upbeat tones in the music. That oboe conveys sweet strength in its thick, smooth notes.
“Tommy And Angela” is a mournful melody tune about a young couple who are struggling with the guy’s alcohol abuse. Mitchell paints a vivid lyrical picture of Tommy’s psychological profilet. She also puts a sweetly sung twist in the emotive texture, letting the listener know how she feels about his swishing lifestyle. Likewise, Mitchell commences her lyrics about Angela with a warm repetition. This tale of two hard lives receives a tender treatment overall from Mitchell’s instrument-like use of her voice. She hits the most tender notes with a sensitive touch.
Title track “Pretty House” briefly treats the listener’s ear to Mitchell’s voice singing unaccompanied. Unadorned, her sweet timbre is enormously pretty, and when her backing musicians join in, the listener is caught up in a loving description of her abode. Mitchell, in a subtle way, reaches up to a slightly higher range in the chorus that caresses her painterly lyrics. Her lilting breezing travel through her verses make the song come to three dimensional life.
“Sweetest Kisses” is a perfectly rendered reflection on a special love. Mitchell creates for the listener the depth of emotions by employing light sustains on her way through her words. Her voice get so soft and pretty she is almost cooing. The singer “plays” her voice like an instrument and she makes her vocal duet in a perfect natural partnership with Billy Novick’s clarinet.
Mitchell’s pretty piano ditty “All I Can Hear” is a dollop of sweet vocalizing and mournful keys and clarinet. She holds a note with such charming timbre and tone that make you wish this piece could go on a little bit longer.
“Say Goodbye” makes the most of only voice and solo piano to express a bittersweet experience. The songwriter is sophisticated enough to say goodbye to an entire unpleasant experience instead of merely aiming her emotions at the person she is physically leaving. Mitchell sets the scene succinctly with her song craft. The melancholy piano chords and world weary vocal sums up the physical, mental, and spiritual exhaustion that comes at the end of a trying time in one‘slife. More importantly, Mitchell’s approach makes the listener feel it.
Mitchell’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” plays out with a grand, effective sweep of vocals, piano, and Kristen Miller’s cello. Mitchell’s voice soars on this tale of a disturbing love relationship, breathing new life into Cohen’s metaphor of David’s obsession with Bathsheba .
Mitchell closes out her album with “Everything You Do,” an ode to a curious love. It is hard to tell exactly who she has written this song about. Yet, that is the beauty of the lyrics here. Mitchell makes her listener curious. It would most likely be about a child in the stage where a parent doesn’t get as much attention in a youth’s world. The singer-songwriter artistically expresses the longing to have a closer connection, balancing love with a need to be loved back. And the cautious approach felt in the piano notes is a masterstroke in conjuring this ambivalence.
Mitchell’s Pretty House album is a special treat for any fan of the singer-songwriter genre. It is also sure to go over well with anybody who just likes to hear a beautiful voice artfully expressed and tastefully restrained.
http://www.lizmitchellmusic.com
