Search - James Grant :: I Shot the Albatross

Not what you'd expect...

09/12/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"James Grant came to my attention a couple of years ago when I noticed that he sang back up, played guitar(s), and wrote several songs ... From there it was a quest for me to find anything and everything I could that Grant had done. He has a very good, instrumental voice and is an accomplished guitar player and song writer. ... so I ordered "I Shot the Albatross" as soon as I found out it was available, and was really surprised the first time I played it (this CD has now become one of my favorites - the more I listened to it, the more I liked it).On this CD, James Grant takes poems and puts them to music, some in song form and some narrated with musical accompaniment. It was not what I had expected, but it really is quite good. "A Tale Best Forgotten" is hauntingly beautiful (Monica Queen does the lead vocals)and Grant's guitar work (throughout the album) is very impressive. Grant sings on "Long John Brown and Little Mary Bell", "Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town", "Wild Nights", "Lady Weeping at the Crossroads", and "Song". The rest of the songs are narrated mostly by Grant with his Scottish accent. The music is always interesting, melancholy in "The Tragedy of the Leaves", quirky in "The Triumph of Hunger" and everywhere in between on the rest (something for everyone). I could really begin to like poetry if the poems were accompanied by music like this - try it, you might like it."