Search - Cybill Shepherd :: Somewhere Down The Road

Excellent album from under-appreciated singer

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 08/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Cybill is famous as an actress, but it is her music that interests me. She has a lovely voice and uses it to good effect on this collection of songs. The style of the music is hard to define precisely, but I would describe it as mellow pop with some jazz influences.The tasteful but restrained musical backing allows you to hear Cybill sing a wonderful selection of ballads and mid-tempo songs. The set begins with Peabo Bryson joining Cybill on the title track - the only duet here. The remaining songs are all solo tracks.The song that stands out initially is Push for you - it is the catchiest song here - but great though it is, there are many excellent songs here, none of which I recognized .I was already familiar with another song titled Shot full of love (recorded by Jennifer Warnes and several others), but Cybill's Shot full of love is completely different and equally brilliant.There are so many brilliant songs here. Never mind what Cybill can do as an actress, this album and the equally brilliant Talk Memphis to me (which I've already reviewed) shows that she can also sing."

A lively, lovely surprise

John M. Abramson | Panama City, FL, USA | 05/20/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Then a fan of Cybill Shepherd mainly because of "Moonlighting", I DID know of her first album, "Cybill Does It...To Cole Porter" (a harbinger of the doom that was to be "At Long Last Love"), because of a local radio station's weekend show, devoted occasionally to lousy recordings by celebrities; however, while at a record store in 1990, I came across "Somewhere Down The Road" and purchased it immediately. Upon that first listening, I was struck by how much her voice appealed to me, as much as it had when she sang on "Moonlighting". While the arrangements on some songs seem a little silly ("Push For You" is a prime example), her fine voice is put to particularly good use on the title track, a duet with Peabo Bryson (with whom she blends beautifully), and the final cut, "Whatever We Imagine", but it is the slow, silky pure-jazz "Same Old Blues" that is the true prize of the entire collection; with this one song, she's equal to the 'greats' of jazz. (While "Vanilla" was enjoyable, I wish she'd record another album of standards, a song style for which her voice is perfect.) Throughout this album, though, she offers a strong, if occasionally - but charmingly! - flat vocal that I enjoy singing along with because it fits my own so well. It's just unfortunate that this collection had no push and remains a "buried treasure". It's good stuff."