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The Sounding Board by R J Lannan |
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RJ Lannan is the reviewer for The Sounding Board. |
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| Waiting for the Moon |
| By John Adorney |
| Label: EverSound |
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| Waiting for the Moon tracks |
1. Always
2. The Potter's Gift
3. A Butterfly in the Well
4. In Bloom
5. The River's Secret
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6. Waiting for the Moon
7. Unbroken
8. Flow of Love
9. The Dance
10. Mavoh Mavoh
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Lunar Anticipation |
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It was Thursday morning. The bedside alarm clock glowed a pale green 2:38 A.M. The storm had just passed and I could not sleep. I decided to do some work. Fumbling in the faint light, I found my portable CD player and touched PLAY. I laid there in the dark with the rain dripping off the roof and for the next hour, I was captivated by the music of John Adorney from his new release Waiting for the Moon. I have played the album several times over and I get the same emotional jolt every time. Adorney’s reflective music cascades like a red silk scarf over nubile flesh and Daya’s vocals are sweet and emotively engaging. In a word, Waiting for the Moon is timeless.
When I listened to The Potter’s Gift, I was reminded of my old friend Diane as she sat at her wheel. In the music, I could hear the soft sifting sound of her fingers on the cool buff-colored clay and, before my very eyes, like a miniature miracle, a form took shape and a beautiful object was born. After the colorful glaze and the sun-like heat of the oven, the object cooled and you could touch the hands and heart of the artist whenever you touched the vase or pitcher. I have seen her many times although she is now far away.
“There’s a butterfly in the well, a cloud in the dirt, a wind through the heart of the mountain…” Daya’s vocal talents really excel on A Butterfly in the Well. The song exudes melancholy with Adorney’s wondrous lyrics and gentle fairy song score. In a childlike view on the world, the music reminds us that beauty is all around us, but sometimes it is short-lived.
The title tune Waiting for the Moon is a wonderful ballad. The angelic intonation of Daya’s voice thrills the senses a lot like Miriam Shockley does in all of her work. Adorney’s electric guitar sings gently as Daya recounts the story of the moon-bird who only takes a mate by the light of the argent moon.
In Bloom begins a bit like a John Williams film score, but then it takes a turn for the playful. Like a ride down a dusty road in a rag top, the music takes you away for just a little while, but then sadly, it returns you to the here and now.
The vocal refrain from The Dance is soft and sumptuous like the light from a ring of candles in the bath. You lean back in your sudsy microcosm and dream luxuriant dreams. Freedom and fantasies are at your beck and call.
Mavoh Mavoh is an uncomplicated tune, but it is so emotionally transfused that I could hardly stand it. Like the opening tune, Always, the refrain is very simple, but the music is sensitively charged. This piano tune slices though your negative feelings like the first cut of a sharpened scythe upon spring wheat. Sung in the Gun (Guun) African language, the chorus repeats, “I will love from eternity to eternity” and it echoes in your heart again and again. The song will make you feel something!
New Age pianist and composer John Adorney has been pulled in may musical directions in his life. From instruction on cello as a child to guitar and onto piano. He undertook classical studies at the University of Connecticut and later moved around the country from Colorado to California. Focusing on teaching music at a school for disabled children and then on to his own music therapy classes. Adorney has had two successful albums, Beckoning and Other Shore.
The music will touch you deeply and heal you like the smile of a newborn. It will drench you in emotion like a summer shower and refresh you like a zephyr. This CD is going on my Top 10 list for 2004.
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Rating: Excellent  |
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- reviewed by RJ Lannan on 5/27/2004 |
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