Linda Marks outdoes herself on her new A Recipe For Hope album. The prolific singer-songwriter has matured as a lyrical messenger and grown as an artist. She offers more variety of styles while crafting her styles to bolder lyrical themes.
Opening dandy “The Road To Hope” finds this sophisticated singer-songwriter letting her soft, smooth timbre flow with natural beauty over positive lyrics about overcoming today’s dark, difficult time in American history. Mark’s voice climbs with each verse into higher notes and higher ideals. John Conahan’s moody piano melody and Alice Hasen’s violin edge conjure well the feeling of hope versus adversity. This all works thematically while being a meaningful song without pedantry.
“Love Always Wins” lets electric guitarist Ross Bellenoit lay out an intriguing line as April Reed-Cox puffs up the sails with her tense cello breezing through. Against that backdrop are tasteful dollops of piano, violin, and a sweet backing vocal from Lisa Jeanette with whom Marks wrote the song. Those two voices carry well over Marks’ tapestry of sweet sounds, matching the lyrical joy as well as keeping listeners glued to all that is going on here.
Marks makes death a contemplative topic in “Love Letters In The Sky.” Finding positive joy in the end of life, she uses her supple vocal and her shiny, peppy accompaniment to express the joy each life had brought to her before each ended their time on earth. A resonance in Mark’s voice celebrates the spark of life. Her lovely sustains are cooing breaths of life, and is just one way this singer-songwriter makes us feel what her song is all about.
“September Morn” gets its sails filled with largeness as Marks sings wide, a lot of emotion, tenderness, sensitivity. It is something she achieves when she uncannily combines her lovely timbre with a sweeping melodic line, both getting particularly sentimental. Here, each sustain in purpose and in musical brightness, is heavenly. Alice Hasen’s violin melody here dances around and cries with tenderness.
Marks is at her most heartfelt on title track “A Recipe For Hope.” This one is actually Marks’ response to a child who wonders why we are seeing so much trouble in the world at this time. Her voice is filled with emotion as she carries us lyrically through the maze of misery to arrive at a happier place. Her vocal asserts itself warmly as punchy piano notes, wafting strings, and some solid drum fills make a good home for that voice.
Adding a touch of Americana roots feeling, Marks goes into “Facebook Songwriter’s Blues.” Her voice, playful here in its quick assertions, fits neatly into a weave of harmonica sass, honky tonk piano, soulful, simmering organ, and a pulpy rhythm section. The contrast between playful vocal and a tight rhythmic clip punctuating the song is fantastic. This could be Marks’ crossover hit, blues, pop, and adult contemporary.
A two step shuffle carries well the witty, insightful “Psychotherapist’s Work Song.” Marks utilizes more of her girlish timbre, playful vocal pace to help make her point wittily. Her joyful jaunt, tightly wrapped in brisk acoustic guitar strum, loose accordion bliss, and bubbly organ, makes this an especially fun part of her album. Her approach balances carefully with a serious lyrical side about maintaining one’s mental health.
“Hope, Love and Prayers,” inspired by Damar Hamlin’s football field heart attack emergency, finds Marks contemplating how Hamlin’s mother must have felt watching her son collapsing. Mark’s soothing vocal contrasts well with April Reed-Cox’s dark, edgy cello and Alice Hasen’s mood violin. John Conahan’s revolving piano line captures a never resolving feeling that a mother would experience when fearing for her child’s life. This song also manages to look at the hopeful side of a mother’s love and a man’s rebound.
“Another Stop Gun Violence Song” finds Marks making a serious point while singing in jaunty rhythmic motions to a bouncy John Conahan piano line. This keeps the song accessible, catchy, and easy to take in intellectually. An Alice Hasen violin melody wafts mournfully in the background, cleverly highlighting the serious message of this song.
A dark Valerie Thompson cello line captures the challenging theme of “Out On A Limb,” a plea for help for the mentally ill. Joy Grimes’ plaintive violin work and Mark’s minor key piano chords capture the darkness of a world without a light at the end of the tunnel, which is how it often goes for those who need support for hidden issues.
Ross Bellenoit’s acoustic guitar path and his gritty banjo give an uptempo pace to “Coat Hanger Abortions And People Shooting Guns.” Here, Marks questions the questionable Supreme Court decision to arbitrarily overturn a 50 year precedent and the death cries that have emanated from half of the states in our nation. Marks sings as prettily as ever, contrasting her voice well with the flinty acoustic support, a contrast that gives the listener a deeper sense of women’s precarious healthcare predicaments.
Close out track “New Chapter” is in the lofty Marks style. With graceful piano, understated bass, moody cello, and fetching pedal steel, Marks pleasantly asserts a need to hold onto the hopefulness of the young. Her voice sails over the accompaniment like a large flag upheld by a hearty wind. Her emphatic voice powers her lyrical choices, making clear who she is, a person of hope which imbues this song with sincerity.
Marks has done it again. She has come up with an album loaded with heartfelt lyrical theme as well as solid, ear tugging song structures, vocal techniques fleshed out by a crack team of supporting musicians. In this A Recipe For Hope album she has done even better than before. There are catchier numbers, more involved song structures, and more variety of lyrical themes. Marks makes it seem easy for a singer-songwriter to sum up all that plagues our current world and to point the way to a better, more hopeful future. Bravo. If some of the musicians have unfamiliar names, it’s because Marks worked with Philadelphia musicians where her album was produced by Glenn Barratt at Morningstar Studios. Two songs were produced by her usual producer Doug Hammer at his Dreamworld Productions in Lynn, Massachusetts.
