The key word to CCM's web site should be energy. The girl is on the move.
Singer, songwriter, actress, are the first three words scrolling across the
site as this talented lady bespeaks the reasons why she exists.
With her debut album Everybody's Talkin' she gets a chance for the first
time to express herself fully in song. The album highlights her song writing
talents. All songs are written, arranged, performed and produced by cee cee.
And in this, a very autobiographical tome, she relates her life as a work in
progress.
Relationships, god, and a morality play of images of good versus evil, and
their latent tendency to grab you where it hurts, make this more of a sound
track from a Broadway Play than a purely musical experience. Theatre,
theatrical sounds, orchestral homages, and dogs barking, phones ringing, and
conversations between girl friends add to the visual appeal.
Picture the playful good looks of a young Janet Jackson, without, ahem, the
latex enhancements, add a bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre,
with a vocal range of four octaves, and numerous award nominations for stage
performances in the US and Canada, and you have one heck of a package.
"Everybody's Talkin," the title song, is pop blues at it's best. She has a
great voice, which growls, and winds, and jumps. I would love to hear this
song without the production values, which are great, but she sounds so damn
good. This would be a good one with simply drums and a tambourine and that
voice, to die for.
The gospel/funk influenced "trupain" with it's refrain "Do what you gotta
do," has a great moral philosophy to share. Voice and bass are the medium,
and maybe we could do without the ringing bells, that keep the ears tinging
even after the song is over (I actually tried to answer my phone a couple of
times). After all it is how we deal with strife that defines the way we live
our life. "The truth, the pain, the sacrifice, dream your dream, and live
your life."
This is one of the stronger albums in the singer-songwriter genre, with a
heavy gospel, blues influence. Aren't categories wonderful? Buy the album
off cee cee's web site and cee for yourself.
www.ceeceemichaela.com
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