Cabaret Scenes CD Review

By the time you get to Lynn DiMenna’s gentle reading of “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons” on her new album, Fun & Fancy Free: The Music of Dinah Shore, you are transported to a special era when Dinah Shore once roamed fancy free and with the ease of an everyday lady who loved to sing. For those who remember her, one of Ms. Shore’s endearing strengths was putting her own supple stamp on the songs she loved. And, as her popularity grew through the decades—from her years in the movies and with several successful television shows, appearances and guest spots—many popular songs from the 1940s and ‘50s became hers. Songs like “Blues in the Night” (which recalls her Southern roots), “Lavender Blue,” whimsically paired here with “Buttons and Bows,” and especially a melancholic “I’ll Walk Alone” will forever be linked to Shore. It is a terrific legacy for an unassuming artist who deserves to be remembered. On this sweet disc, DiMenna pays loving homage to that lady. It also helps that there is a vocal resemblance that is spot on. This is particularly so on a medley of songs that Shore sang with her pal Frank Sinatra. Singer Bob Spiotto’s warm baritone on these duets with DiMenna serves the songs well, and their voices blend with an old-fashioned flair.

With superior original arrangements by Paul Greenwood, the band is very mellow and suave under the exceptional musical guidance of pianist and duet vocalist Steve Doyle. Such warmth also reflects Shore’s signature cozy style.

For sentimental and all the other right reasons, Lynn DiMenna’s alto is soft and easily pleasing, making this an easy-to-listen-to disc that grows with each cut. Most of what she sings emanates from a calm center sparked by a hint of playfulness that effortlessly captures all that Dinah Shore was about. That playfulness particularly comes delightfully to the fore in lithe, jazzy versions of the 1926 Henderson/ DeSylva/Brown song “It All Depends on You” and Cole Porter’s “It’s De-lovely.” Mwah

John Hoglund
Cabaret Scenes
November 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org



	Lynn DiMenna Fun & Fancy Free: The Music of Dinah Shore LDM Records
By the time you get to Lynn DiMenna’s gentle reading of “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons” on her new album, Fun & Fancy Free: The Music of Dinah Shore, you are transported to a special era when Dinah Shore once roamed fancy free and with the ease of an everyday lady who loved to sing. For those who remember her, one of Ms. Shore’s endearing strengths was putting her own supple stamp on the songs she loved. And, as her popularity grew through the decades—from her years in the movies and with several successful television shows, appearances and guest spots—many popular songs from the 1940s and ‘50s became hers. Songs like “Blues in the Night” (which recalls her Southern roots), “Lavender Blue,” whimsically paired here with “Buttons and Bows,” and especially a melancholic “I’ll Walk Alone” will forever be linked to Shore. It is a terrific legacy for an unassuming artist who deserves to be remembered. On this sweet disc, DiMenna pays loving homage to that lady. It also helps that there is a vocal resemblance that is spot on. This is particularly so on a medley of songs that Shore sang with her pal Frank Sinatra. Singer Bob Spiotto’s warm baritone on these duets with DiMenna serves the songs well, and their voices blend with an old-fashioned flair. With superior original arrangements by Paul Greenwood, the band is very mellow and suave under the exceptional musical guidance of pianist and duet vocalist Steve Doyle. Such warmth also reflects Shore’s signature cozy style. For sentimental and all the other right reasons, Lynn DiMenna’s alto is soft and easily pleasing, making this an easy-to-listen-to disc that grows with each cut. Most of what she sings emanates from a calm center sparked by a hint of playfulness that effortlessly captures all that Dinah Shore was about. That playfulness particularly comes delightfully to the fore in lithe, jazzy versions of the 1926 Henderson/ DeSylva/Brown song “It All Depends on You” and Cole Porter’s “It’s De-lovely.” Mwah John Hoglund Cabaret Scenes November 2011 www.cabaretscenes.org

Lynn DiMenna

Fun & Fancy Free: The Music of Dinah Shore

LDM Records

Fun & Fancy Free:
The Music of Dinah Shore