$2.95 Will Get You The Story of A Life

If you've ever borrowed a CD from me, and the liner notes are all wrinkled and water stained....it just means that it's one of my favouritest favourites.     I'll put the liner notes up on the window sill by the sink while I do dishes, learn all the words,  and inevitably it falls in the dishwater.   So now you know.

It happened again the other day.   I found this awesome CD at the second hand store and I just LOVE it.  (But it is audio torture to Ray and the boys so I only play it when they're out.)  The average 'joe' might have passed over it, a Gino Vanelli CD with the innocuous title "canto".     This ain't your momma's Gino(well, actually it is....)   Not even remotely close to the 80's Black Cars or Wild Horses Gino.    It's more of a "CBC Radio" Gino who Josh Groban would LIKE to sound like when he grows up (...and maybe he'll get there when he has 11 or 12 albums under his cummerbund).

So Gino's liner notes fell into the dishwater.    This shows three things: the dishwasher is not working, Joe, my hired gun, is supposed to be doing the dishes (why am I at the sink?), and this has become a favourite CD.    As far as liner notes go, this one is awesome.     Gino (because by now we're on first name basis!) wrote about the inspiration for each song.   I think it's neat when you are allowed a glimpse into someone else's head, I know it's carefully  plotted and penned , but still.... He wrote the lyrics AND the music, and quite a bit of the orchestration. Multilingual....some in Spanish, some in Italian, one in French and two in English, figurative translation included.     Really beautiful, introspective songs, about life, love and loss (like reading a blog).  There is a song about hope composed in the days following 9/11.   He writes a song about his dad, which he doesn't provide translation for.   I love how he writes about his dad, and his wife and how much he loves his own son.  You get the feeling that amid the musical wasteland that was the 80's,  people sometimes lose their way and the artist is very much content at this stage in life...someone who has lived life, come out the other side and likes(maybe even loves) who they are and thankful for the company he is keeping.   Not bad for $2.95.  If not for my friend PK, who always has his radio tuned to CBC Radio 100.5,  I might never have known about this side of Gino.   I also met Glenn Gould there, Ron Sexsmith, Rufus Wainwright, Molly Johnson,  the Wailing Jennies, as well as the regulars: Ravel, Dvorak, Chopin, Schuman...I could go on. 
 
A  very interesting selection on the turntable  today...very mellow, very instrumental, and very mellow...   Dinner party music:

1. Gino Vanelli - Canto.  Faves - "Canto", and "Mala Luna" dark song, but beautiful sound.  Dark things in real life are sometimes really beautiful on the outside.   Perhaps that's what makes them so dangerous.    
2. Phil Keaggy - Lights of Madrid.   I love classical guitar and this album is all instrumental, with a Spanish feel to it.  Faves - "Allegria" and "Picante"( I think Julianna likes that last one too!)
3. Leona Boyd - Camino Latino.   Also classical guitar with Latin influence, with a bit more of a pop sound. And wow...still such a beautiful, sexy,  lady at 60!!!  Faves - "Morenita" and "Torbellino".
4. Yo Yo Ma- obrigado BRAZIL.   Really great album, especially if you're inclined to like Brazilian influenced jazz.  The whole album is great.  I like the pieces with vocals, all Portuguese. 
5. Chris Taylor - down goes the day.   I am still wishing he would make a second album but like Chris Rodriguez, and Burlap to Cashmere...it's not to be.   Lovely mellow album for the wee hours, when you're making cards all by yourself or having some friends over for a glass of wine.  :)  Faves - "down goes the day" and "the right shoes" and "already forgotten the name".

And that's what's on today.....