REVIEW
Barnes
and Noble, 2004
by Donald Elfman
If you like your love songs served up straight, free of artifice and frill, then give a listen to Laura Welland. She's chosen 12 songs from the ballad and standard songbook and presented them in a way that focuses, most naturally, on the stories they tell. Thanks to the bright, clean sound of the production and the complementary colors provided by her accompanists—Bill Mays on piano, producer John Clayton on bass, and Joe LaBarbera on drums—Laura discovers the simple truths and treasures in such well-known gems as "Honeysuckle Rose", "I'll Be Seeing You", and "I'm Confessin", while also putting new bloom on tunes that we don't hear so much these days: the delightful Sammy Fain title tune (which by the way, was introduced in the film New Faces of 1937 by Harriet Hilliard, later Harriet Nelson of Ozzie & Harriet fame) or "Be My Love", with its lush romantic lyrics by Sammy Cahn.