Search - Carol Welsman :: Language of Love

BEWARE OF SKEWED AVERAGES, MUSIC LOVERS!

W. Gawlas | pittsburgh | 02/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"True...the "average customer review" of Carol Welsman's extraordinary CD,

"The Language Of Love" appears to be a mere 4 stars. But that statistic is SO misleading! It is based upon the fact that three reviewers gave Carol at a grand total of 4 stars (1,1,&2) while NINE others praised this

superlative singer, across the board(5 stars each), with a TOTAL SCORE of

FORTY-FIVE STARS! This is how one lies with statistics. And that's not

the bottom line, not yet.

One nay-sayer from 3/04 compared Ms. Welsman unfavorably with three other

jazz wannabes: Connie Evingson, Carmen Lundy, and Paula West --all of whom

are certainly "competent" but are so far out of Carol's league, that they

couldn't even carry her uniforms!

Take Evingson as first example. Her vocal affect is so flat throughout

her albums that it seems identical to her unemotional photo on the front

of her "Gypsy" CD. There's the same disinterested, nasal contact with

every tune. It's not reaching to imagine her showing up for each session,

droning out the songs, putting down the lead sheets, picking up her check

and disappearing out the door--work's over, man!

Carmen Lundy and Paula West are at least more animated and varied in their

treatment of their chosen material. But they, too, are far from the

heights of greatness some would attribute to them. Carmen is good, but

so are hundreds of other R&B singers, from whom she differs very little.

Paula West is somewhat better--mainly because she attempts more challenging items from the Great American Songbook. Oddly, though--for

example on her "Restless" CD--because she includes such non-classics as

"Fixin' A Hole" and "Cow-Cow Boogie" (and calls motherless calves

"doggies" instead of "dogies").



Other (and, I suspect, more knowledgeable) reviewers have supplied

ample justifications for their uniform awarding of 5 stars to this master-

ful Juno-Award-winning singer from Canada. Too bad Amazon's star-rating

cuts off at 5! Carol has earned and deserves many more. (Curiously, at

least two of the low ratings came from her countrymen, or persons, as you will.)



Nevertheless, despite the disparities in talent, fine singers are over-

looked in situations where "popular appeal" outweighs real ability.

If you could round up enough people to make hundreds of thousands of

telephone calls, you too could become the next American Idol! Athletes

of mediocre skills manage to draw salaries that are meteoric out of

all proportion to their actual talents. Then there's politics.



Skewed statistics, drawn from musically illiterate but oh-so-opinionated

members of the general public, may be what America is "all about."

But that really doesn't do justice, does it?"

A Great Surprise Find

SF Music Guy | San Francisco, CA | 10/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was in an Apple retail store checking on iPods and "You Take Me Away" is a sample song I select. I loved the song so much, I went home that day and ordered 2 of Carol's CD's. Another favorite from this selection is a beautiful version of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square". I'm an instant Carol Welsman fan!"