Poetry CD Review:
Midnight Tea: A Second Cup
by Brian Michael Tracy, Andy Hill, and Renee Safier
Poet Brian Michael Tracy is back again with Andy Hill and Renee Safier for their second CD production,
Midnight Tea: A Second Cup.
Like the first production,
A Second Cup features poems from Tracy's first book
Driving With Dante and folk jazz music by the duo Hill and Safier. From the book, Michael Tracy reads the following poems:
- Your Poem
- What She Sees
- When First We Planted Trees
- Driving With Dante
Hill and Safier provide only cover tunes, though the advance copy only consists of eight tracks, compared to the full
Midnight Tea CD, which contained seventeen. Still, you'll love the smooth sounds and the fabulous vocals of this male-female duo. Safier sounds almost like the legendary Joni Mitchell as she covers "The Circle Game" from her
Ladies Of The Canyon album released in 1970.
The songs Hill and Safier sing on the advance copy of
Midnight Tea: A Second Cup include:
- Broken Arrow - (Robbie Robertson)
- Whispering Pines (Richard Manuel/Robbie Robertson)
- For Everyman (Jackson Browne)
- The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell)
Hill's and Safier's style mimics well the sound of the artists they cover on the album. They fit in perfectly within the genre they have chosen and if they weren't singing cover tunes I'd think they might actually be an original artist from the era when folk rock music was the dominant tone, but they lack the creativity and originality to be an act on their own. That doesn't mean they have no talent; it's just that they do the cover tunes so well they do not necessarily need to write their own songs.
Tracy's reading voice is crisp and his annunciation is perfect. There is no lack of understanding. Though his rendering of his own poems seem a little bit different than the way I'd imagined them myself upon reading
Driving With Dante. Still, I give him a thumbs up.
If you like folk rock and jazz and poetry with a smooth delivery then
Midnight Tea: A Second Cup would be a good investment.
Midnight Tea: A Second Cup has not yet been released.
If you don't have one yet, order a copy of
Midnight Tea
by Andy Hill, Renee Safier,
and Brian Michael Tracy
today.
