Search - Livingston Taylor :: Ink

Liv it up!

John S. Ryan | Silver Lake, OH | 02/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The vastly underrated Livingston Taylor has been honing his craft for some thirty years now, and on this CD he turns himself loose on a collection of well-chosen material. Two of the songs are Liv's own ("Our Turn To Dance" and "I Must Be Doing Something Right," both from the CD _Our Turn To Dance_); the rest are from all over the musical map.For this recording, Liv has hooked up with a tight little outfit consisting of two (other) acoustic guitars, acoustic bass, percussion, harmonica, and a pair of backing vocalists; the overall style is no-frills jazz-inflected folk of the very finest kind. The tunes themselves are all wonderfully arranged for this musical setting, and some of them work shockingly well: I personally didn't even particularly like "Baker Street" when it was new (and tremendously overplayed), and I was pretty well blown away by this recording of it. (The sax part taken over by a blues harp? Believe it or not, they pull it off.) Likewise, a couple of the others -- for example Ambrosia's "The Biggest Part of Me" -- are not tunes I especially cared before before I got this CD. But Liv breathes new life into them.Liv's own guitar work is uncredited in the liner notes, but if you're familiar with his style you can hear him playing on some of the tunes anyway. And his mellifluous tenor has only improved over the years; his delivery is earnest, credible, and inflected with his trademark impish humor. The result is one of Liv's finest CDs, a studio effort that sounds live.If you're new to Liv, this CD is a great place to begin. (I even prefer the version of "I Must Be Doing Something Right" on this CD to the one on _Our Turn To Dance_.) If you like it, you may want to check out _Bicycle_ and _Our Turn To Dance_ next, in either order.Most of Liv's older releases are now available on CD as well -- including his fine debut album, his terrific follow-up _Liv_, his third release _Over The Rainbow_ (good songs...), and his stellar _Three-Way Mirror_. Enjoy."

" Ink " is " Taylor-made " for warming hearts on a cold day

KRISTI R. REDCROSS (kredcros@sbo.nn | Newport News, VA | 10/23/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"" Ink " is an excellent place to start for anyone who is not familiar with Livingston Taylor's work. From beginning to end, this album is a definite winner--especially beautiful and poignant is the tune " Fly Away. " Liv always seems to have that ability to fill your heart to full capacity. From original tunes, such as " First Time Love " to startling remakes of Ambrosia's " Biggest Part of Me " and Stevie Wonder's " Isn't She Lovely, " Liv consistantly paints beautiful pictures of lovliness and delivers powerful doses of positivity. " Hallelujah, Liv ! We love you so ! ""

For easy listening - none better

Cheer Mom | Voorhees, NJ USA | 03/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Whenever I am stressed out by the day's events, this is the first album I put on. Livingston Taylor's vocals are just so soothing and the songs on this CD are so smooth and easy to listen to. While Oleta Adams has the best performance of "Get Here," Livingston brings his own style to the song and makes it one of the best renditions of this classic."