Album Review: Cabaret Song Meister Bob Levy Releases His BALLADS - Songs of Love In All Its Flavors

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby's CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week's album entry in the BobbyFiles, dear ones, comes from Composer/Lyricist, Bob Levy (and Silk River Music) who, last month, released BALLADS, a compilation of "Levy's Latest" sung by various artists from our night club stages. While the theme here might be ballads, BALLADS is really all about love... Love songs sung in a slow dreamy jazz style... Love songs about love... love starting, love ending, love in the middle wondering where we go from here, love in the middle wondering where the hell we are, love after love wondering why did we end OR why didn't we end sooner, songs saying kiss me/don't kiss me, kiss me and let's spark a fire, don't kiss me we're over, we're over so kiss me goodbye and don't forget the dancing, the sun, the moon, and the stars ... you know my dearlings: L-O-V-E! It does not seem that the songs of BALLADS have been arranged in any sort of journey from start to finish, but that, rather, each song is its own story, standing alone, waiting for the listener to work out what's going on with each new track - and that's perfectly ok since the heartfelt interpretations by the various vocalists take you on that new journey each time. So let's talk about a few of them that stand out, shall we, my lambs?

With 4 cuts on this album (more than anyone else), Dane Vanatter is a welcome winner. A tenor with no rough edges to his creamy voice, his work on THE MOON, THE STARS, THE SKY (an "I'll be lost if you leave me here alone with my memories" song), in Vanatter's voice, is filled with real longing and is a favorite of yours truly. Dane also ends the album with the appropriately titled IT'S OVER - a "we're past the end" song lamenting that we can't go back and we don't love each other anymore - again, all with that lilting, longing tone to his voice that tugs the ol' heartstrings. Another song filled with need is WHY CAN'T YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH ME, sung by Laurie Krauz in her mature woman's voice, singing about her May/December romance - an older woman begging her young paramour to fall for the girl inside. She's "Barking up a younger tree," the lyrics say, expressing hard sentiments sung in a sentimental song, with lovely diminished chords at the end telling all of the heartbreak.

Amongst all the pains of love throughout BALLADS, there is the uplifting jewel, IF YOUR HEART COULD FLY, performed by a singer who was completely unknown to little bobby before now, but who will not go unknown, anymore. Jinny Sagorin sings of letting love in so that one can feel its chest full of riches, in a most beautiful voice reminiscent of the legendary Julie Andrews. Nicolas King's rendition of IS THIS STILL LOVE has him singing in the sweetest part of his voice, with his customary liquid tone, consummate vocal control, and emotional touches posing the title's question. King has a powerful instrument with which he can put any song over, in a big way, but, here, he softly asks about love that has lasted but that needs reigniting, to reassure us that time has not turned us into friends.

These are merely a few of the nice tidbits from an album that, overall, is lovely to listen to. Its themes of the varieties of love go from hearts and flowers to the end and back again, covering all the ways love hurts, heals... and sucks... as the album cover says: Love * Joy * Heartbreak * Goodbye. The tone of BALLADS never rises above the soft, longing-filled, smooth jazz of easy listening, at times begging for wine and tears, and, sometimes, for just the tears or just the wine. The entire 77 minutes of music begin to feel like a long haul, a little over midway through, but the music is beautiful, the poetry heartfelt, and the vocals are superb, from some of our finest song interpreters. For lovers and lovers of love songs, there is definitely a lot of great music here and that's really nice, and so we give BALLADS a nice...

3 ½ Out Of 5 Rainbows - Put This One In Your Spotifies: HERE

Bob Levy often works alone, but he also has a number of collaborators. Please read the names of all his colleagues below: