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CD Review by Jack Nichols
For starters, there was "Stardust", arguably the best-known of all America's standards. He'd also written "Heart & Soul" a song I'd played as a piano duet in childhood. Crystal Gayle's rich, warm voice-hatched in Indiana, along with Hoagy Carmichael's compositions themselves -- impelled me to buy her CD after hearing her sing "Skylark" on the music channel. My biggest surprise was finding "The Nearness of You" on this album, an everlasting standard I'd heard performed by dozens of artists and had loved since my eighteenth year. What strikes home in Crystal Gayle's renditions is how she's returned us to yesteryear in America, a period in which the heartland's lackadaisical dreams surface "In The Cool Cool Cool of the Evening" or up the "Lazy River". Laziness is a recurrent Carmichael theme, with "Lazybones" and "Rockin Chair" recalling the rural work-ethic mindsets of Middle America. What impresses me most as a writer, is his amazing lyricism: a poetry so pure that an America I'd almost forgotten becomes reincarnated. Odd that "Georgia on My Mind" had been written by a man from Indiana. At the start of a three year stint in Atlanta, I'd played this song incessantly, purposefully hoping my new surroundings could be infused with the romanticism this dreamy melody promised. It worked - though I'd chosen a male singer for this song, Willie Nelson, perhaps an appropriate choice inasmuch as Nelson accompanies Crystal Gayle on her Carmichael album singing "Two Sleepy People." Carmichael's full name was Hoagland Howard Carmichael. He was born in 1899 in Bloomington. He lived for 81 years in a 5' 7" frame, inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1971. In the 1940s, Hollywood had made use of his talents, featuring his songs in a variety of films. In 1953 he hosted Saturday Night Review and he had tried his hand at acting in both movies and TV dramas. It was as a composer, however, that America remembers him best in torch lyrics that recall a long ago love: Dreaming of a song The melody haunts my reverie and I am once again with you When our love was new and each kiss an inspiration. Unaware that Carmichael had written "Skylark" another of my perennial favorites, I thrilled to hear Crystal Gayle ask: Haven't you heard the music in the night? Wonderful music, faint as a will-o-the-wisp Crazy as a loon, sad as a gypsy serenading the moon. Considering humanity's endless search for love and affection, her plea seems invested with a peculiar poignancy: Skylark, I don't know if you can find these things But my heart is riding on your wings So if you see them anywhere Won't you lead me there. |
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Hoagy Carmichael's name had popped up on many occasions, but I'd never quite known who he was or what he'd done in the world of music. Doting on his songs without asking who'd written them, it came as a surprise to discover through Crystal Gayle sings the Heart & Soul of Hoagy Carmichael that Hoagy had composed a few of my all-time favorites.