While taking part in Blissdom '09 I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the women behind One2One Network, a women's word of mouth marketing network. As a member of One2One, I have the opportunity to take part in some projects involving reviews and product sampling. I'm not sure how many of these opportunities I'll participate in or how often they'll occur. Out of respect for my readers who aren't crazy about product reviews, I will always title these posts "Review," so that you can move along to something else. But for those of you who are interested, read on. Hopefully some of these reviews will offer a little perk for you, as well.
A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to review the Yanni Voices CD. I really wanted to be a part of this project after a screening of Yanni's PBS special was shown during the Blissdom conference. My initial reaction to Yanni was less than stellar. When some of his most well known albums were coming out in the mid-90's, my musical tastes were a bit more, umm, grungy? But I have to tell you, I was more than just pleasantly surprised by the music I was hearing this time around.
Yanni Voices pairs Yanni's music with the vocal and songwriting talents of four young artists: Nathan Pacheco, Leslie Mills, Ender Thomas, and Chloe Lowery. I'm a sucker for singer/songwriters. I love the idea that these young artists took Yanni's instrumental pieces and made them their own. It's an eclectic mix of music that I find difficult to describe. Many of the songs are written in Spanish and Italian. Some are operatic, some contemporary, some timelessly romantic. I'm particularly drawn to the songs featuring Leslie Mills and Nathan Pacheco. At the risk of sounding like Paula Abdul on American Idol, I love the tone of Leslie's voice. Her performance in "Before the Night Ends" is hopeful and heartbreaking at the same time. I couldn't tell you what Nathan is singing in "Unico Amore (Enchantment)," but he could sing it to me all night long. Move over John Cusack, with your giant boombox and "In Your Eyes." I want Nathan and that song outside my window.
The CD is available in stores now. For more information on the CD, the upcoming tour, and the PBS special check out Yanni.com.
As a thank-you to my readers, One2One Network is giving away a copy of the CD. To enter, just leave a comment with an answer to this:
Name a musician, group, book or movie that you swore you would never like . . . and then ended up sheepishly enjoying.
Comments will be closed at midnight on April 12th, and a winner will be chosen at random from the comments received. Thanks!
Congratulations to Jessica R.! She's the winner of the Yanni CD/DVD. Thanks for the comments!
I am also a sucker for singer/songwriters. It’s great for songwriters who aren’t singers to have stars sing their songs, but I am always impressed by people singing their own words. Something I ended up enjoying, but that I had thought I would never like…Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I had always been a sitcom kind of girl, but really enjoyed that series.
When I was growing up I always swore up and down that I hated country music- not just some of it, the entire genre. Fast forward a couple years and it’s pretty much the only music I listen to on a regular basis.
I also said I’d never be one of those mom’s driving my minivan, listening to a kiddie CD and look at me now- I specifically requested a Raffi CD from the library yesterday!
Well, I was going to say that I always swore that I would never like The Beatles or Pink Floyd (due to my dad playing them so much when I was a child that I got burned out), but now there are a few songs that I appreciate. However, I’ve decided to confess to something more embarrassing: In college, I always thought poppy boy bands were really lame. However, when “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys started being played regularly on the radio, all of my defenses were shot down, and I paid actual money at Best Buy for the CD single so I could rock out to it whenever I wanted.