Album: Underneath a Vincent Van Gogh Sky / Artist: Angela Kaset /  Adult Contemporary - Mellow Pop

 

Award winning singer / songwriter Angela Kaset’s album Underneath a Vincent Van Gogh Sky is a tidy booklet of eleven acoustic piano based stories from the heart. The organic deportment of the Nashville artist’s songs, allow her beautiful vocals and sensitive phrasing to be showcased. The songs touch upon many facets of life, including the second track “Damned If I Am,” which lays bare the passions and the vulnerability of one who falls in love, as Kaset draws upon Dutch post-impressionist painter, Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night for further inspiration, “Underneath a Vincent Van Gogh Sky / I fell in your starry, starry eyes / I quivered and I blushed / The blood in my head rushed /And every word I meant to say was swallowed in the hush / Well, I’ll be damned if I am / Fool if I am not in love.”

 

Fans of country music will recognize Angela Kaset’s song “Something In Red,” recorded by Lorrie Morgan for her album of the same name in 2002; a song which went to # 14 on the charts, one of many hit tunes that Kaset has authored, and which have been recorded by the likes of; Suzy Bogguss, Linda Davis, Wynonna Judd, Aaron Tippin, Jessica Andrews and Amy Dalley. Kaset strikes a more seductive and prettier tone than Morgan’s vibrato vocals. As you might expect with a songwriter singing her own song, Kaset brings a deeper connection to her performance and the listener sits in her living room, while she reflects upon the passage of time, symbolized by the color of her clothes, what she chooses to wear and how those clothes fit. While at first blush “Something In Red,” might easily be categorized as “a lady’s song,” it appears to me that the story is much more than that, for it is a tender sharing of a woman’s life and that which is important to her, and one would hope that all of us can appreciate that and perhaps look at the women in our lives, with a little more understanding.

 

In the tradition of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, Angela Kaset’s “My Boy,” proclaims that war is wrong, when we ask our innocent young men and women to fight battles on foreign soil, for the sake of money or power. The song begins with Kaset singing a cappella, before the musicians join her, and of particular note is the haunting ambience created by Casey Wood’s percussion and Tony Harrell’s harmonium, with Aaron Irons on the bowed saw. The heartbreak of a mother is heard in the recurring line, “I did not raise my boy to die this way.” Without having the opportunity to talk to Angela Kaset, we do not want to conjecture if she is talking about current wars or wars in general.

 

One of the prettiest and most poignant songs on Underneath a Vincent Van Gogh Sky is “Letter From God,” a simple missive of hope, without any preachy overtones. The message is simple; in the midst of your struggle, God still cares, and He has a way of reminding us of that, when we least expect it.

 

Even though many of Angels Kaset’s songs have been recorded by country music artists, if you need a reference point for this album it would more accurately be described as Adult Contemporary meets mellow pop.

 

Whereas “Something In Red,” is the passages of life through the eyes of a woman, “I’m a Big Girl Now,” starts much earlier, in childhood, through adolescence and as a single parent with her own daughter. Anyone who has been a single parent, will easily be able to identify with wondering how you are going to make it through another day and then comes the time when the lifecycle is complete, as you find yourself taking your child to kindergarten for the very first time, and perhaps they are clinging to you. It’s time for that daughter or son to begin her or his journey through life.

 

If you have just come out of a relationship or lost someone close to you through their passing from this life, you may not want to listen to “I Didn’t Know I Was Saying Goodbye,” because once again, Angela Kaset’s sensitive phrasing is so evocative that it is difficult to listen to this song without tears welling up in your eyes. There are hints of lost moments, lost chances and words unspoken.

 

The remaining four songs from Underneath a Vincent Van Gogh Sky are, “Christmas in New York,” “Someone Different Instead,” “Jesus With the Light Brown Hair,” and “Finally.”

 

If you are looking for music that is going to rattle your bones and have you dancing in your living room, this is not the CD for you, but if you truly appreciate good poetry, and lyrics that help you to close your eyes, as you watch the story unfold, presented by a lady who knows how to tenderly lay her heart open so you understand the message, then Underneath a Vincent Van Gogh Sky, by Angela Kaset is a must have for your collection.

 

Please visit Angela Kaset's website

 

 

 

Reviewed February 2010

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