The Art of the Love Song: Annie Moses Band (2015) [Blu-ray]

The six multi-talented brothers and sisters who make up the Annie Moses Band are on home ground for The Art of the Love Song, the lush, romantic album that follows their first Warner Classics release, American Rhapsody. Available as a CD, DVD or Blu-ray, it was recorded live in July 2015 at the legendary Grand Ole Opry House in their hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.

Nashville, officially designated the USA’s ‘Music City’, reigns supreme in country music, but the Annie Moses Band specialises in a particular brand of artistic fusion. They bring together a rich variety of musical styles – popular and classical – to create something fresh, distinctive and captivating.

In the words of the band’s sweet-voiced lead singer and violinist, Annie Wolaver Dupre, The Art of the Love Song “honours the miracle of love”. She quotes Nat King Cole’s haunting Nature Boy: “The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return." The velvet-voiced Cole is a special point of reference on the album, which also offers romantic numbers made famous by a diverse collection of great names – among them Barbra Streisand, The Beatles, Art Garfunkel, Joe Cocker and Perry Como. The members of the Annie Moses Band have reinterpreted a whole treasury of classic love songs for the album: it has 14 tracks, with two bonus tracks on the CD, and a bonus track and interview footage on the DVD and Blu-ray.

Between them, the Wolaver siblings – Annie, Alex, Benjamin, Camille, Gretchen and Jeremiah – play violin, viola, cello, harp, mandolin, guitar, electric guitar, piano and B3 Hammond organ. Several of them trained at New York’s renowned Juilliard School; what’s more, they are also songwriters, and Alex is the Annie Moses Band’s chief producer.

Backing them on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry House last July was a full-scale symphony orchestra, comprising young musicians from around the world who had come to Nashville to participate in the annual Fine Arts Summer Academy. This two-week summer-school is led by the members of Annie Moses Band – with their mother, Robin, serving as Artistic Director, and their father, Bill, as Musical Director. The lavish sound of the orchestra provides the perfect setting for the instruments and voices of the younger Wolavers – and for the unforgettable words and music of some of the world’s most memorable love songs.

Треклист:
1. Evergreen By Barbra Streisand/Paul Williams
2. La Vie En Rose / Honeysuckle Rose, by Edith Piaf, English by Mack David and Frank Eyton / By Fats Waller and Andy Razaf
3. And I Love Her by Lennon and McCartney
4. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Ewan Macoll
5. Nat King Cole Medley
6. The Very Thought of you by Ray Noble
7. That’s All by Alan Brandt and Bob Haymes
8. L-O-V-E by Bert Kaempfert and Milt Gabler
9. Old Fashioned Love Song by Paul Williams
10. Longer by Dan Fogelberg
11. Nature Boy by Eden Ahbez
12. I Only Have Eyes For You by Harry Warren and Al Dubin
13. Let's Stay Together by Al Green, Al Jackson, La Marquis Jefferson, Jermaine Dupre Mauldin, Willie Mitchell, Joseph Simmons
14. Steady Hands Words and Music by Gretchen Wolaver
15. Love Song by Leslie Duncan
16. And I Love You So By Don McLean
17. Grow Old With Me By John Lennon