One To The Heart, One To The Head Review

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One To The Heart, One To The Head ReviewThis collaboration between two gifted songwriters started with Russell's prescient notion that Peters, one of Nashville's most successful writers, should reconnect artistically with the West where she grew up. What they've created together, in a CD comprised largely of other people's songs, is a remarkable achievement - at once stunningly beautiful and emotionally deeply satisfying.
To begin with, this is not a predictable retread of Western themes, nor does it inhabit a consistent landscape of time and place. Rather, the West evoked here is a place of loss and longing, of myth and legend, and of memories faded by time. It's a complex vision, brought to life by an inspired selection of songs.
It's no great surprise that songwriters of Russell's and Peters' caliber would pick interesting songs; what's less predictable is how completely they inhabit their selections, making each song their own, and - even when familiar - providing interpretations that are fresh and unexpected, as with Townes Van Zandt's "Snowin' on Raton," and Dylan's "Billy 4" from the "Pat Garrett" soundtrack.
The real revelations however are in the less familiar songs. Mary McCaslin's gorgeous "Prairie in the Sky" which opens the set, and Jennifer Warnes' haunting "Prairie Melancholy" which closes it, stake out the emotional territory that will be explored. Tom Dundee's "Cowboys Born Out of Their Time" is another high point - a lament for a way of life now passed, but as with a number of these songs, also an unexpected perspective on a familiar topic. And Stephanie Davis's "Wolves" is simply chilling.
Other than Barry Walsh's opening instrumental and the traditional "Old Paint," the one song here that's not a cover is a new song of Russell's, "Guadalupe," which is sung - beautifully - by Peters. Though set in Mexico rather than the American West, this in many ways acts as the cornerstone of the CD, addressing the diminished options that come with age, and the unbeliever's desire for faith - or least for some sort of redemption.
The sound throughout is as raw and uncluttered as the Western landscapes it evokes. Barry Walsh's sepia-toned keyboards provide a perfect foil for Peters' warm soprano, suggesting a saloon bar piano of long ago. The other consistent musical texture is provided by Joel Guzman's accordion, weaving melancholy reminders that - emotionally at least - the Mexican border country is never very far from the West described in these songs.

This CD is at once a love song to the American West and a meditation on some of life's tougher challenges - one to the heart and one to the head indeed.
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