Including compilations, jazz pianist and vocalist
Diane Schuur has over 20 recordings. That said, she's never issued anything like
The Gathering, her debut offering for Vanguard. Cut in Nashville in one day -- with another dedicated to overdubs and fixes --
Schuur and her band perform ten absolutely classic songs from the country music canon in her own signature style. It's clear that while she wanted to be reverent toward the material, she was also interested in omitting the twang.
Schuur plays acoustic piano, but is also backed by
Mike Rojas on Wurlitzer,
Eddie Bayers on drums,
Steve Gibson on guitar, bassist
Michael Rhodes, and vibraphonist
Eric Darken. The set opens with a stellar rendition of
Hank Cochran's ballad "Why Can't He Be You?"
Schuur croons and swoons vocally, moving the tune toward the pop audience
Cochran was reaching for when he wrote it. This is followed by a beautiful reading of
Willie Nelson's "Healing Hands of Time," on which saxophonist
Kirk Whalum adds a deeply soulful solo without forsaking any of the tune's melodic intent; it is painted further by
Mark Knopfler's and producer
Steve Buckingham's guitars. The reading of Dallas Frazier's "Beneath Still Waters" isn't as emotionally moving as
Emmylou Harris', but perhaps that's because
Schuur foregoes a plaintive vocal in favor of a full-throated bluesy one. The reading of
Tammy Wynette's "Til I Can Make It on My Own" does the opposite: it may lack the drama of the author's version, but in its place are warmth and elegance.
Vince Gill lends harmony vocals to
Merle Haggard's and
Bonnie Owens' "Today I Started Loving You Again," which is funked-up
George Benson-style by the addition of
Larry Carlton's guitar as the cut's driving force.
Alison Krauss harmonizes on another
Cochran tune, "Don't Touch Me," with the lilting Wurlitzer underscoring
Schuur's lead vocal. Perhaps the most compelling track here is her version of
Bill Anderson's and
Roger Miller's "When Two Worlds Collide," as jazz and country meet head on and become something else. The set closes with a radical take on
Kris Kristofferson's "Nobody Wins."
Schuur's precise vocal, pronounces each syllable in declamatory style; it's stretched by
Gibson's guitar playing, accenting the ends of her lines and elongating them. One might imagine that
Schuur used
Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and
Patsy Cline's later recordings as inspirations, but her revisioning of these legendary songs is uniquely her own, placing them in neither the jazz nor country camps, but firmly in the realm of classy American pop. ~ Thom Jurek