ROSE POLENZANI WITH SESSION AMERICANA

When the River Meets the Sea

2008-12-11

With songs that can't help but leave you reflecting on the lamentations of life and love, Rose Polenzani offers up such a fare on this her fifth album of folk musicianship. In this case, it's a collaboration with the Boston based Session Americana, who for the most part, were not even introduced to the songs until about an hour before recording them. The result is an effort produced over four days in the Spring of 2006 with musical arrangements that stand as "unrepeatable works of chance, friendship, and artistry." The opener, Queen Anne's Lace makes for a good start as it aptly makes use of the fullness of Billy, Ry, Dinty, Jim, Kimon and Sean of Session Americana. Soft Parts makes a nice use of percussion as well as showcasing the soft serenade of Polenzani's voice as she beautifully sings "And all, all my friends, they say love, love is hard. So I hold on to the soft parts." Still, the standout track is If I Could Hit You, a song that laments an unresolved relationship that has been resolved on its own - through death. Here she writes: "the Good Lord sees what's in my heart, and I should have made it right while I had a chance to try." Even the title track, When the River Meets the Sea, a song written by Paul Williams back in 1977 for Jim Henson's "Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas," is a welcome departure from Polenzani's own songwriting. While some of the shorter songs such as Song of the Stars and Push Me if I Snore are a distraction to this effort, on the whole, this collection and accompanying collaboration works fairly well. ~ Reviewed by Jeff Bouma

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