Ray Manzarek, a founding member of The Doors whose versatile and often haunting keyboards complemented Jim Morrison’s gloomy baritone and helped set the mood for some of rock’s most enduring songs, has died. He was 74.‘What A Life’ Erin Boheme
Erin Boheme dropped off the radar after making an impressive debut as a traditional jazz singer at age 18. Seven years later, she’s released “What A Life,” the first album by another singer produced by Michael Buble.
A more mature Boheme has transformed herself into a pop singer-songwriter, performing tunes reflecting her own experience of falling in and out of love.
Boheme uses her jazz technique to accent her girlish yet seductive vocals on the relaxedly swinging “He Isn’t You” and the Motown-soulful “One More Try.” Although some tracks are overproduced, Boheme’s voice is an expressive instrument that needs only minimal backing.
Among the handful of covers, Boheme adds a feminine perspective on unreciprocated love to Coldplay’s “In My Place.”
– Charles J. Gans, Associated Press
‘The Highway’ Holly Williams
Holly Williams is the kind of poetic songwriter that country music once embraced.
These days, the powerfully sensitive songs featured on her new album, “The Highway,” are relegated to the independent Americana genre that exists outside of the arena-rock formulas of country radio.
The strength of Williams’ songwriting and the subtle emotions in her husky, expressive voice suggest she is following in the cross-genre paths of Mary Chapin Carpenter and Kathy Mattea – or the country side of Neil Young and Lyle Lovett.
Amid a raw yet seamless blend of piano, acoustic guitar and subtle rhythms and sonic accents, her songs seek something true amid the bumps and bliss of daily life. She makes listeners feel why making that search is important.
– Michael McCall, Associated Press
