Search - David Houde :: The Painter's Eye

"The Painter's Eye" is an intimate project, a collection of ten original songs from an important new voice. As a songwriter, David Houde (pronounced "Hood") draws on varied musical influences; seventies folk masters like Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and James Taylor were key influences on several tracks, with other songs owing a debt to the jazz world and Houde's extensive background in classical music. At times sweet and simple, with acoustic folk guitar and lovely harmonies, and at times dramatic, with soaring cello, piano, and David's clear tenor voice in rich orchestrations, "The Painter's Eye" is an entirely holistic piece despite its changes in musical coloring. David enlisted Emmy-award winning engineer Fred Vogler ("The Barbra Streisand Tour, 1994") to capture the varied nuances of the music, a challenge met with the addition of Fred's considerable talents. These are songs of love and family. Children, parents, brothers and sisters. Friends. Lovers. All are the fabric of the work, all have a story to tell. In "Moments Of Grace," the cd's first track, Houde sings of fleeting moments that define who we are, from 'hearing a story on daddy's knee' to 'the nights you dreamed of how you would wed.' In "This Child" a baby is welcomed into the world, not just by a parent, but by a community, a 'circle of brightly colored light.' The heartache of love lost is poignantly explored in "Silent Prayer," and in the title track, "The Painter's Eye," David asks art, and in turn, the artist, to step in with answers to the questions that can otherwise be too painful to ask.