Just the Facts Album Review - Francesca Battistelli

Album: Francesca Battistelli - My Paper Heart

Style: Guitar driven pop

First Adjectives in My Mind: QUALITY - FUN - UPBEAT - HIT THE HIGHWAY & ROLL DOWN THE WINDOWS

Voice - Forget the sweet syrupy cookie cutter voices that hit the airwaves - Francesca has a refreshing, real, earthy voice that a breath of fresh air. She has some slight country flair a la Susan Ashton.

TOP 5 Best Bet Downloads:
"Free to Be Me"
"Blue Sky"
"Unpredictable"
"Beautiful, Beautiful" - Can't get it out of my head (but in a good way)
"Forever Love" - Worshipful!

Songs to Skip: None

Bottom Line: Francesca has put out a fun and impressive debut that I will enjoy many times over. There's nothing earth-shattering or groundbreaking, but it's a great, enjoyable pick me up. Highly recommended!

RR Rating: *****

Session 3: Glass Harp - The One Song Session

One Song - Can you see me? **** 1/2

from the Live! Circa 72 DVD

Us Righteous Rockers settled in with some food and drink and enjoyed the one song session - a 28 minute feast of toe-tapping jamming! Highlights:

Phil Keaggy solos on his Les Paul. He dazzled with his fret work, improv and creativity. Comments consisted of "...this is Jimmy Hendrix quality...", "...when have you ever scene a better guitar solo?" It was ***** 5 stars all around for Keaggy's virtuosity, except that is for Saarah who gave his fret work a *** much to the chagrin of the rest of us Righteous Rockers.

John Sferra equally impressed with his tantilizing drum solo. ***** 5 stars all around - except for Saarah who commented "...I've seen better drummers...". She received some dirty looks.

Dan Pecchio only scored a *** 3 stars for his flute work. Sorry Dan!

The 70s fashions ran dead last with only * star. Sorry parents!

But, the dancing guy in the red plaid shirt at the end scored a bunch of ***** stars for his unorthodox (and somewhat scary) dance moves!

If you haven't seen this DVD before, you owe it to yourself to check it out!

Winner!

Congratulations to George Merusi! He correctly identified all of the artists and groups in the RR challenge. As his reward, he has won the CD Very Best of Whiteheart! Don't you remember what a great live show Whiteheart was? The CD includes the classics Invitation, More Sold Out, How Many Times, Desert Rose, etc... Of course, I don't know how you have a best of Whiteheart without Independence Day? Oh well, still a good intro to the classic 80s, 90s band. Enjoy George!

Session II - Playlist

Ouch! We had some pretty harsh critics during session II. Trey said Paul Clark's tune started out like a kid's song. Saarah said Gentle Faith's tune reminded her of Pokemon which brought her rating UP to 2 stars! (Brutal!) Even the heavenly harmonies of 2nd Chapter of Acts didn't impress. Oh, well. It's fun to be critic, isn't it? Here our play list and average song ratings. What do you think?

Second Chapter of Acts

Last Day of My Life *** 3 stars

Yahweh *** 3.5 stars

Agape Band
Voyaging Pilgrim **2.5 stars

Phil Keaggy (1973) - From his very first solo album
What a Day *** 3.5 stars

Paul Clark (with some help from Phil Keaggy)
Holding onto You *** 3 stars

Gentle Faith
Love for You ***3 stars
This song gets stronger as it goes. Do you like the jazzy pre-chorus?
Livin' in the Sunshine **2.5 stars