DAVE'S DIARY - 28 APRIL 2004 - ANDREA ZONN REVIEW
CD
REVIEW
ANDREA ZONN
LOVE GOES ON (COMPASS)
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Classically
trained Illinois fiddler-singer Andrea Zonn had a surfeit of peers
when she cut her debut disc. Zonn chose superstar Vince Gill and wife Amy Grant as harmony singers after working in Gill's road band for 12 years since graduating from Vanderbilt University. And she recruited former husband John Gardner - the Dixie Chicks drummer - to pick up the tempo on a dreamy disc that won't escape comparisons with Alison Krauss. But Andrea uses Krauss, Grant and Gill on only one tune each - preferring harmonies by male peers Jon Randall Stewart, Darrell Scott and Jeff White. |
Producer
Zonn, touring here with her banjo playing record company boss Alison Brown,
doesn't write her own material.
Instead the Nashville minister countrifies a raft from artists eclectic
as Neil and Tim Finn, Marcus Hummon, Paul Brady and hit writer Leslie
Satcher.
She kicks off with energised Beth Neilsen Chapman tune Heads Up For
The Wrecking Ball - one of three songs featuring Brown on banjo and
Tim O'Brien on mandolin.
Zonn alternates on fiddle, viola, violin and cello with musicians diverse
as Dixie Chicks mandolinist Brent Truitt, John Mock on whistles and concertina,
dobro ace Jerry Douglas and pianist John Jarvis.
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she will be remembered more for her lilting vocals with harmonisers
Hummon on his tunes Galilee Road and Stained Glass Love
and the Finn brothers Weather With You. Highlights include Neil Finn hit, Better Be Home Soon, and Satcher's haunting nostalgia-primed pair You Remain and Another Day. This is a fine debut but the sequel could benefit from variety in tempo akin to Rhonda Vincent and the Cox Family may have broken the mould. That doesn't mean this is not good value; merely that her future recording needs to aim for day time vibrancy instead of just nocturnal bliss. |
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