Blue - Cassie Taylor - New Release Review

I just received the newest effort, Blue, by Cassie Taylor and it's really good! Yes, she's Otis Taylor's daughter but her music is in a different universe. This album doesn't fit into the standard "Blues" mold but I actually quite liked the record. Taylor wrote all 10 tracks on the recording and it definitely has a blues root but it has influences in many other directions. Spoken For has the eerie melody of early Fiona Apple and cool harp accompaniment to a relatively stripped down track. Taylor has a great voice for this type of moody blue music. Black Coffee again has the blues phrasing and this time backed with gospel like vocals. The track actually puts me in mind of writing by D'Angelo... another of my contemporary favorite vocalists. Goodbye is an uptempo track again keeping the instrumental very light with drum and rhythm guitar. Taylor's voice is sprinkled lightly across the song like a chef making a fine cuisine. Cool guitar riffs are added like a dash of spice. Bought Borrowed Stolen is a very strong ballad that should make Taylor a household name. Again keeping the instrumentation to a minimum and just lightly applying vocal the recording is just beautiful. Brilliant. Make Me Cry is a rocker again holding the music back to work with a light application of Taylor's voice. It isn't that Taylor doesn't have a strong voice...she does. It like she doesn't have to "American Idol" every note and she allows the music to breathe. This track has a pretty hot guitar solo on it but again sonically restrained. The mix is really superb. Haunted is the logical choice for the airplay track of the release. The melody is sweet, the hook is there and the guitar on echo/trem the overall sound is just polished and salable. Disappointment is another of my favorites from the recording. It has strong soul influences and an updated sound with again cool guitar effects. Again very well arranged soul background singers really warm up the track. Waste Of Time completes the recording and is a nice light ballad to conclude the set. The song begins as Taylor's voice and piano but builds to full band... still lightly handled. As my regular readers know, I am not really a "vocal" oriented recording fan and female vocals are really not my thing (with few exceptions). That being said... I think that this is a great cd and look forward to hearing a lot more from Taylor.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”