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Current concise reviews of the albums by adult alternative, contemporary, and crossover artists. Images of album artwork and links to both internet-based resources are always included. Click on the title to view the article.

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Sarah Spencer - SoundCloud Songs 2013 - Cover Artwork
click on image to visit artist's website
\r\nimage © Sarah Spencer Music 2013


.: more Sarah Spencer :.
new! exclusive interview (2013)
Angelfire (2010)
interview and photos (2010)

Paul Weston feat. Sarah Spencer - My Desire - Cover Artwork
"My Desire" single artwork
Paul Weston feat. Sarah Spencer
image © Chris Loughlin 2013

Sarah Spencer - Us Someday - Cover Artwork
Sarah Spencer - All Or Nothing - Cover Artwork
Sarah Spencer - River Road - Cover Artwork
Sarah Spencer - Mountains - Cover Artwork
Sarah Spencer - Crash and Burn - Cover Artwork
FSU feat. Sarah Spencer et.al. - Teardrop Anthem - Cover Artwork
click any image for Sarah's FaceBook
images © Sarah Spencer Music 2013

 

(25 August 2013) Sarah Spencer has embarked on a solo career and is now based in Nashville. Readers will be well familiar with her work with Steve Morse on the 2010 Angelfire (review) album. In addition to an ongoing series of live performances on her own and with other artists, Sarah has recorded several demos and has made them available for listeners her SoundCloud site. Learn more about Sarah's recent work in our exclusive interview.

At the time of our first interview with Sarah in 2010 she had recorded several gorgeous songs she wrote with other artists. Titles include: "One Day" written at age fourteen and arranged by Al Steel, "Father’s Song," and four further songs with Paul Weston, "My Desire","One More Goodbye," "All of You," and "Shine."

Sarah's new songs on SoundCloud include a collection of five pop folk tracks, although her latest post there is a pop punk version of "Crash and Burn" done with Kyle Tesalona. Links in our recent interview point to three very different hip-hop style tracks with Sarah on backing vocals. Our review follows the "My Desire" article below by Paul Weston.

"My Desire" (Paul Weston). "In the summer of 2003 I was working with Louise Ryan, vocal coach and arranger for Charlotte Church, listening to new artist demos when I mentioned to Louise I had written a new song. I played Louise "My Desire" on my guitar, which was at that time, a four minute song. Louise went quiet. "Oh dear." I thought, fearing the worst.

"That was amazing. So passionate and emotional." said Louise. This was the beginning of the "My Desire." project. Later in summer 2003, Louise recorded her version of the song as a fundraiser for her favorite charity. In April 2004 Serbian composer Arthur Primac, heard the song asked permission to translate the song into the Russian language. Arthur lives in St Petersburg Russia, and considered the song would transpose well into the Russian language.

Arthur worked with some of his musician friends from the London Symphony Orchestra and invited Moldovan singer Olia Tira to perform the vocals in the Russian language. Olia has represented Moldova on two occasions performing at the Eurovision Song Contest. The ESC is Europe's biggest music festival and is watched by 125 million people on television.

Arthur then submitted "Ljubov Kotoroj Bolse" (My Desire) as a song entry for the Russian ESC heats in Moscow. The song was performed at the regional heats in Russia but did not make the final selection. Olia's version of the song had made an impression with the judging panel and she was asked to perform the song at the "Golden Stag (International) Song Festival" held every year in Romania, with a TV audience of many millions across Europe and Asia.

Olia decided to perform "My Desire" in the English language to broaden the song's European opportunities. In 2005, encouraged by progress so far, Al Steele (Australian producer) and myself, got together to discuss finishing the "My Desire" project by composing a contemporary / orchestral music score, which we envisaged would be about twelve minutes long. This would include a full orchestra and rock band and would be arranged around the song.

Between 2006 to 2008 we arranged to meet, when possible, in Al's UK studio in Cardiff Wales, to work together on composition for the overture. By May 2009 we had written the music and had to decide on the right singer for the project. That decision took as approximately five seconds when we both spontaneously said the name "Sarah Spencer."

Al and myself had worked with Florida singer songwriter Sarah Spencer on a number of song projects and Sarah is our favorite singer on planet Earth and beyond! Sarah recorded the vocals in Ocala, Florida and we were both amazed at the wonder of her vocal performance.

The next big job was to record all of the orchestral instruments which were completed in sections between 2010 and 2012. On a beautiful day in June 2013 everything came together ,Al and myself finally completed the master mix of the "My Desire" project. "My Desire" had developed from a song for guitar and voice in 2003, and evolved through projects in the United Kingdom, Australia, Serbia, Russia, Moldova, Romania, and the USA. It was now a twelve minute contemporary/orchestral overture.

The initial response has been most encouraging and so far we have received messages of congratulations and support from artists including Patti Boulaye, K.V.Bala Krishnan, Tony James, Marcella Puppini, Sue Cook, and Nina Kristofferson. "My Desire." will have its commercial release in the Autumn 2013 and Musical Discoveries will have an exclusive and detailed updates, at this time. "My Desire" is a Global project showing that music is a universal language."--Paul Weston, July 2013; an exclusive article for Musical Discoveries.

SoundCloud Tracks (2013). Sarah's mid-2013 SoundCloud recordings include two versions of "Crash and Burn," the first an upbeat "pop punk" version with Kyle Tesalona on lead vocals. Sarah's own version of "Crash and Burn" is delicately sung as a country style ballad backed with acoustic guitar.

Sweetly sung "All or Nothing" begins with light acoustic guitar but becomes a significantly more richly arranged upbeat country folk song. Sarah's crystalline vocals grace "River Road," performed again over acoustic guitar. "River Road" is more starkly arranged. Sarah's vocals really shine on this song. The collection also includes the gorgeous extended track "Teardrop Anthem" that Sarah contributed to while attending FSU.

The gentlest and most delicate ballad in the collection is "Us Someday." It again finds Sarah's crystalline vocals glistening above light acoustic guitar. Similarly performed is "Mountains," although Sarah's vocal work is more dynamic, mixing vocalise with the lyrical passages; listen for the drum work and additional arrangements that have been included here.

Sarah is presently working on both new material and refinements for a potential EP sometime soon. In addition to the Musical Discoveries staff, Paul Weston, Al Steele and her other collaboratings and fans are waiting!

 
 
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