BWW Music Review: Catherine Porter Single DUNE ROAD Beautifully Floods The Ears With Perfection And The Heart With Emotion

Singer-songwriter and International actress Catherine Porter recently released a new single titled "Dune Road" which was inspired by something really close to home; in fact, it was inspired by her home. "This song was written as a love letter to our beloved family home in Westhampton Beach, NY. Last year, after my sister passed from Covid, my parents made the painful decision to sell this beauty." Co-written with her regular writing partner, Kevin Malpass, "Dune Road" is the first of many recordings coming out of Porter's studio these days. Recently offered a recording deal in the United Kingdom, Porter will be working with Malpass and her partner in life and art, Jim Vallance, creating the new album, which means a lot of Facetime between she and Malpass, who is based in France. "Dune Road" is the first of the songs that will make up the new CD.

Porter, a cancer survivor who is very open about her battle and her determination to beat the illness, has maintained social distancing protocols during the pandemic, necessitating an unhappy distance between she and her parents, based in Florida. In a tribute to her Mom and Dad, Catherine chose to release the single on September 3rd, during a week when both her parents were celebrating birthdays, dedicating the release of the song to both of them on her social media platforms. The always personally-informed artwork of Porter will include a subsequent musical release on October 20th, a second single titled "Wildflower" which Porter describes thus: "A tribute to my sister who passed from Covid last year, the song will surface on what would have been her 60th Birthday." This composition is a collaboration between Porter and Vallance, who did the artwork for "Dune Road", and has been produced by Danny Saxon from the band Simply Red.

As for "Dune Road", the gorgeously-produced track is too simple and intimate, too heartfelt and tender to capture the rhapsodic attention of those who seek out anthem-like pop songs, a shame because those people would be missing out on a truly special musical creation. With a melodic line that gets under your skin and into your heart instantaneously, "Dune Road" is a quietly epic lyrical journey that will prove relatable to every person old enough to use the sentence "I remember when"... Though the ambient seashore sound effects of the recording capture Porter's youthful experience on Dune Road, the poetic storytelling will resonate with those who have moved out of their home, child or adulthood, whether a split level in the suburbs, a Brooklyn townhouse, or a cabin in the woods. The experience of saying goodbye to the walls that once protected one's entire world is a tender, terrible rite of passage, and it is viscerally and idyllically captured here, in every aspect, not the least of which is the emotion-laden vocal performance of the velvet-voiced Catherine Porter. This musical storyteller combines with ease her artistic pursuits as a singer and as an actress, as she tells a tale simultaneously personal to herself and to our selves, effectively bonding the listener to her in three-and-a-half minutes of musical solidarity. Listening, one can almost see the two girls as they grow through the years, a fitting tribute to Catherine's late sister, yet not one informed by the heartbreak of her passing, one celebratory of the journey they took together and the threads left behind in the Tapestry of Catherine. The only (the one and only) response to listening to "Dune Road" is to play it over, and then over again, with each play becoming more besotted. The single is ravishing, and if the rest of the album is going to be this good, the next eight months of waiting are going to be very difficult.

Aside from working on these singles and her UK-produced album Catherine Porter has spent her pandemic time at home with Vallance, staying at a safe health distance from the rest of the world, except for some fun neighborhood action: "Jim and I have compensated for (social distancing) by doing gigs every week for our live music starved neighbors and friends on our front lawn and that's been a great boost to us all!. It's fun to watch our neighbors discover that the guy who is always fixing things, plowing driveways, lending a hand when needed is actually a world-class songwriter. We play on Wednesday nights with most of the band (Brad Simmons, Nate Brown, Steve Gilewski, and sometimes Clint de Ganon). It has really kept us sane! And it's been a super fun way of getting to know our new neighbors." Porter is also working (in collaboration with Vallance) on a musical titled "Little C" that bravely charts the story of her relationship with cancer.

Catherine Porter is a shining example of a person who believes in the motto "Take your broken heart and make it into art" - a philosophy that continues to yield impeccable storytelling on a regular basis.

Hear "Dune Road" on Spotify HERE and Itunes HERE.

Catherine Porter's Instagram is HERE.

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