Similar Albums:
- Artist:
Various Artists - Release Date: September 19, 2006
- Type: Collection (various artists), Compilation (best of)
- Genre: Rock
Review
As the title of this rather all over the map three-CD, 45-track set indicates, it's oriented toward woman-performed recordings with an acoustic flavor or base. That's about as much of a thematic generalization as you can make about the contents, though for the most part it's comprised of post-1990 recordings by female singer/songwriters. As far as that category goes, there are cuts by plenty of significant performers, including Eva Cassidy, Beth Orton, Shelby Lynne, Rickie Lee Jones, Alison Krauss, Shawn Colvin, Aimee Mann, Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Petra Haden, Suzanne Vega, and Lucinda Williams. A few songs and artists of an earlier vintage are included as well, some of whom are stylistic ancestors of those kinds of sounds, such as Emmylou Harris and Joan Baez. Introducing some variety -- though also supplying some stylistic inconsistency -- are selections moving afield to jazz (Nina Simone, Dinah Washington), feminist folk (Peggy Seeger's "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer," a classic in that subgenre), and country (Patsy Cline's classic "Walkin' After Midnight," Dolly Parton's "Jolene"). As much of the set does have a placid, earnest singer/songwriter tone, however, the insertion of these numbers (as well as others with an especially rootsy base, such as Heather Myles' country tune "Broken Heart for Sale" and Rory Block's blues "Come on in My Kitchen") adds some welcome earth and grit. The overall concept remains ill-defined enough, however, to make one wonder what some of the tracks are doing here, whether because they don't seem particularly distinguished (like Paula Santoro's trite cover of "The Girl from Ipanema") or because (like Washington's orchestrated jazz-pop outing "Mad About the Boy") they don't tie in with a particularly "acoustic" theme. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music GuideTracks
CD 1
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Songbird (Lyrics) | Christine McVie | Eva Cassidy | (3:46) |
| Central Reservation (Lyrics) | Beth Orton | (4:53) | |
| Your Lies | Shelby Lynne | (2:57) | |
| Weak in the Presence of Beauty (Lyrics) | Alison Moyet | (3:34) | |
| Little Mysteries | Rickie Lee Jones | Rickie Lee Jones | (5:02) |
| Bicycle Named Heaven (Lyrics) | Catie Curtis | (4:00) | |
| Last Love Letter | Alison Krauss | (3:05) | |
| Sunshine (Lyrics) | Gabrielle | (4:11) | |
| Hockey Skates | Kathleen Edwards | (4:29) | |
| Drake (Lyrics) | Beth Gibbons | (3:55) | |
| Whole New You (Lyrics) | Shawn Colvin | (4:03) | |
| Aragon Hill | Hazel Dickens | (3:05) | |
| You'll Get No More of Me | (3:07) | ||
| Ill Wind | (4:12) | ||
| It's All Over Now, Baby Blue [Live] | Bob Dylan | Joan Baez | (4:28) |
CD 2
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby (Lyrics) | Traditional | Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch | (1:58) |
| I Can't Get My Head Around It | Aimee Mann | Aimee Mann | (3:39) |
| Honey Child | Eddi Reader | (5:14) | |
| I Wish It Would Rain (Lyrics) | Nanci Griffith | (2:39) | |
| Show Me Heaven (Lyrics) | Maria McKee | (3:52) | |
| Come on in My Kitchen | Robert Johnson | Rory Block | (3:15) |
| Motherless Child Blues | Tracy Nelson | (4:30) | |
| Yellow (Lyrics) | Bill Frisell, Petra Haden | (4:39) | |
| The Girl from Ipanema | (3:13) | ||
| He Thinks He'll Keep Her (Lyrics) | Mary Chapin Carpenter, Don Schlitz | Mary Chapin Carpenter | (4:05) |
| Jolene | Dolly Parton | (2:38) | |
| Useless Desires (Lyrics) | Patty Griffin | (5:50) | |
| Not Forgotten You | Kelly Willis | (3:38) | |
| The Shades of Gloria | Maura O'Connell | (4:35) | |
| Lighting Up the Mighty Mississippi | Cheryl Wheeler | (3:00) |
CD 3
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Marlene on the Wall (Lyrics) | Suzanne Vega | (3:43) | |
| My Baby Just Cares for Me (Lyrics) | Nina Simone | (3:38) | |
| Mad About the Boy (Lyrics) | Dinah Washington | (2:47) | |
| September in the Rain | (3:17) | ||
| MMM My Best Friend (Lyrics) | Sophie B. Hawkins | (4:42) | |
| Still I Long for Your Kiss (Lyrics) | Lucinda Williams | (4:11) | |
| Can We Go Home Now | The Roches | (8:39) | |
| I'm Gonna Be an Engineer | Peggy Seeger | Peggy Seeger | (4:34) |
| Walkin' After Midnight (Lyrics) | Patsy Cline | (2:34) | |
| Broken Heart for Sale | Heather Myles | (3:02) | |
| When Your Lover Has Gone | Stacey Kent | (4:35) | |
| The Nearness of You | Joanna Eden | (4:59) | |
| Movie Kisses | Thea Gilmore | (3:23) | |
| Warm and Tender Love | (3:48) | ||
| Baby, Don't You Quit Now | Carol Sloane | (4:38) |
