BWW CD Review: Renee Katz NEVER BEEN GONE Is A Personal Journey of Musical Benevolence

Mere minutes into the Renee Katz album NEVER BEEN GONE, comes a strange realization that something is not quite right. There is a sound on the CD that is slightly foreign to the ear, and it takes a few more moments of listening to put your finger on it. When you realize it, it's almost a relief. The sound that you are hearing is pure, unfiltered, unaltered singing. In a world where singers are autotuned or more focused on vocal pyrotechnics than in communicating the notes, the melodic lines, the stories created by the composers, Renee Katz stands before a microphone and sings, clearly, plainly, using only the beauty of the natural human voice and the human spirit to tell these twelve stories. So refreshing is the experience that there is only one way this writer can think of to describe it. If you've ever been downhill skiing, there is a moment that comes after you've booted up, suited up, ridden the lift to the top, climbed to the peak, positioned your goggles and gloves, and are ready to go. In that last moment before you kick off and start the journey down, you pause to look at the sky, the sun, the white of crisp new snow, the green of the trees, and you take a deep breath of rarified air. That's Renee Katz singing: rarified air in your lungs.

Now, about the album. People not in the know may be unaware of Ms. Katz's story - and they won't learn it in this review, they should visit her website HERE for that - but the CD is a companion piece to the artist's book of poetry with the same name. Not having read that book, all this writer can do is discuss this album, which is a lovely, peaceful, tender, tender-hearted, exploration of emotion, expressed through music. Here is a collection of twelve songs lovingly arranged by Christopher Marlowe with a straightforward sweetness that one suspects is informed by Katz's own personality. A jazzy "Jeepers Creepers" and a torchy "I Never Know When To Say When" demonstrate that Renee has other colors (and a belt) but the remaining ten tracks on the album lead with an overwhelming air of optimism and kindness, making great use of Marlowe's quiet and attentive treatments, the meticulous work of all of the album musicians, and the mixing/mastering of the album by Jeremy Harris, Dave F. Cohen, and Dean Marmo. The focus, you see, needs to be on Katz - these twelve songs represent her story, and it's a beautiful one needing to be heard, in all its delicacy and humanity.

With a reedy voice that floats gently through the air, Renee Katz does a deep dive of emotion into the lyrics accompanying each melody, honoring the poetry and the trajectory of songs like the exquisite "I Could Marry The Rain" which, in her hands, feels like it was written just for her - and the title track by Carly Simon, a recording so personal that the four minutes it takes to listen to the song leave you feeling like you've known the singer all your life. Katz and Marlowe make choices over the presentation of "Meadowlark" that give Renee an opportunity to fuse the legendary ballad with the more filigree-like natures of her aesthetic, a wise decision because each woman who sings this song must step far out of the shadow of the originating artist, a task well achieved here. Especially moving on an album that is a symphony of tranquility are Renee's renditions of "Learn to Be Lonely" and "Stranger to the Rain" - the former, like a lullaby of motherly advise, the latter, a paean to survival; and the wistfully mournful temperament of "Ribbons Down My Back" might, well, give the illusion that you are hearing the song for the very first time - it is Christopher Marlowe at his haunting, hypnotic best. It is possible for one to think the entire album is Renee Katz at her best, too - unlikely because Renee, as many know, is on an evolutionary track to overturn every stone in her quest to reach new heights in her artistry. This album is just one level in the progression.

Renee Katz NEVER BEEN GONE is a 2013 release on the Renee Katz label. It is available on most digital platforms and at the Renee Katz website HERE.

To post a comment, you must register and login.