Linda Marks’ has released yet another of her fine singer-songwriter albums. This Boston area artist averages about two CD releases per year. Everyday Legends, as the title suggests, shows several examples of people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to live lives that shine in their hope, courage, and perseverance.
Opening number “Let There Be Love” uses a lilting and lovely vocal melody. Marks uses this song as a social message vehicle. Her message is for people to offload the social media fights, negative press, and political differences. Thankfully, she has the bright, shiny voice to pull off this song of hope. Accompanying her is Ross Bellenoit’s acoustic guitar and mandolin as well as John Conahan’s gentle piano, giving Mark a more laid back approach than merely relying on her own accented piano notes to carry her voice.
Written in the voices of the children of Uvalde, Texas, “Our Children’s Prayer” becomes part inspirational, part hopeful, even though it’s coming from the point of view of school children who are passed saving. Mark’s voice moves through her thoughtful lyrics like it’s guided by a warm hand. This gives a sincerity that her words need.
“Please Listen” finds Marks addressing today’s parents from their children’s point of view. Lyrically, she makes her points about what kids need and how those needs can be neglected. Vocally, she draws the emotive grist out of her words with her silky smooth glide. With sensitive guitar and piano from Glenn Barratt, John Conahan, and Ross Bellenoit beneath her, Marks applies her tender vocal application to keep this song’s textures properly layered, adding up to one very pretty, impactful song.
“Windows And Doors” travels through several motions, motions created by bulbous bass notes from Chico Huff. With that flexible backbone, sweet electric guitar notes move upwards and shine. Combined with a revolving piano line, a perfect platform is created for Mark’s considerate vocal assertions. Here, she slowly gives and sustains parts of the lyrics, carrying the listener to where she wants to take them into the picture this song creates.
Title track “Everyday Legends” benefits greatly from Willie Sordillo’s alto saxophone. Sordillo’s phrase, brassy, smooth, and traveling around in perfect circular motion makes a perfect dance partner to Mark’s lilting, motion-filled vocal. With a piano driven rhythm section behind them, both voice and sax create that spirited feeling that perfectly captures the theme, the people who rise up from their ordinary lives to become something special.
“I Can Only Imagine” is a strong piano ballad. Mark’s consistently emotive notes are soon so warmly enveloped bu Steve Latanision’s pretty pedal steel line and Valerie Thompson’s large cello phrase. Mark’s adds her vocal prowess to these upper register instruments to form a beautiful combo of colorful streaming melody lines. From there, the tenderest emotions rise up from the voicing and phrasing
“Second Chance” is about one of Marks’ rescue cats. This one hums beautifully with Valerie Thompson’s firm, emotive cello line. Alice Hasen’s violin phrase doubles the tender grist as does Steve Latanision’s forlorn pedal steel. This support team demands that Marks sing her heart out to arrive at an even higher level of expression. She does. In spades. This singer-songwriters sends her voice across the landscape with sweet, flowing persistence, expressing a lot of depth with coos, sustains, and effective phrasing as her voice sails forward.
This album features one of the best songs of Marks’ career, “Unstrummed,” an ode to a fictional character named Cotta Blue, invented by Diane Cameron Elam for her Cotta Blue Project, an educational program for raising awareness of blues music. With Doug Kwartler on tuneful guitars, bass, and drums and Doug Hammer on honkytonk piano, Marks vocally rides a rocking chair groove with sweet, chirpy, enthusiasm. This singer’s sincerity and her knowledge of blues legends keep this song palpably fun and enthusiastic.
“Safe Harbor” lets Marks show what she can accomplish in a completely different musical setting. A duo with male vocalist Kemp Harris, this piece uses two smooth voices to create a peaceful vibe. Marks asserts her vocal in an easy touch. Harris, likewise, only have lets out his soulful voice in a gentle unfolding. One feels that this song is a safe harbor in the way the voices and the instruments lap against the soft landscape.
“A Brighter Light In Heaven” finds Marks at her most beautiful voicing. Her sentimental send offs to those she has lost ring true with emotional power and with a fine vocal beauty. Her voice here is lofty, refined, elegant, and full of feeling. While Marks sings her elegant heart out, Alice Hasen bows a lilting and lovely violin line that carries a secondary emotive grist. Valerie Thompson’s moody cello is the backbone keeping all of this in a proper check.
Marks’ cry for son’s peace of mind, “Prayer For Peace,” provide a careful balance of firmness, hope, and cautious optimism. Marks keeps her voice high, high in pitch, high in spirit, high in dynamics. This helps to illustrate how she has to balance her feelings on her favorite subject and the balance in the song remains suspended high while maintaining hope for the future. Marks not only makes one feel all this in her voice, she also arranges all of the instruments here for a special layering of tenderness. Thompson’s cello provides the motherly warmth and sensitivity while Hasen’s sweet violin provides the light at the end of the tunnel. Steve Latanision’s emotive pedal steel plays forlornly in the backdrop, serving as a second voice balancing the needs and hopes of a mother.
Close out track, “Good Times,” shows Mark’s cooing vocal receiving support from Doug Kwartler’s jazzy electric guitar, bass, and drums as well as Willie Sordillo’s smoky saxophone. Feeling like Carol King from the early 1970s, Marks creates a vibe with the opening notes then follows through with an upbeat personal anthem. Her voice winds through and around her support drive. She is fully authentic in these song settings as she has the vocal oomph to match Kwartler’s snappy lead guitar phrase and Sordillo’s wafting sax line.
Marks continues to make these albums which combine singer-songwriter perspective and sentiment, kite high vocal brilliance, and a flare for fundamentally familiar rhythms. On Everyday Legends Marks brings a common person touch to discussing people with high fiber character. She also manages to express each song’s vision with a perfect accompaniment in which she shuffles variety into her own unique Linda Marks sound. Produced by Doug Hammer at Dreamworld Productions in Lynn, Massachusetts with a few tracks produced by Doug Kwartler at Hollow Body Studios in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and by Glenn Barrett at Morningstar Studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marks and her team are sounding in fine form here.
