Details
Track Listing
1. For Our World
2. It Matters
3. Morning Gift
4. Shades of Life (I Am)
5. It Happened Anyway
6. Possession
7. Songs of the Wind
8. Making Real Senses of Our Senses
9. Gift of Color, The
10. I Could...If They Would
11. About Memories
12. About Watches
Album Notes
Contains tracks based on the poems of Mattie J.T. Stepanek.
Personnel: Billy Gillman (vocals, arranger); Mattie J.T. Stepanek (spoken vocals); Michael Spriggs (acoustic guitar); Jerry McPherson, John Jorgenson, Troy Lancaster, Mickey Jack Cones (electric guitar, background vocals); Al Lorenzo (ukulele); Sam Levine (alto flute); Jimmy Nichols (piano, keyboards); Terry Tachoir (vibraphone); Joe Chemay (bass); Tommy Harden (drums); Bekka Bramlett, Liana Manis, Angela Bacari, Melinda Norris, David Molloy, Britt Savage, Wendy Moten (background vocals).
Producers include: David Malloy, Bruce Roberts, Charlie Calello, Angela Bacari, Sandy Linzer.
Compilation producer: Tonya Ginnetti.
Recorded at Emerald Sound, Sound Lounge, Nashville, Tennessee and Startrac Studios, Warwick, Rhode Island.
An ambitious project for anyone, much less an artist barely into his teens, MUSIC THROUGH HEARTSONGS is a concept album of songs sung by teen country phenom Billy Gilman, but based on the writings of poetry wunderkind/best-selling author Mattie J.T. Stepanek. Anyone familiar with Stepanek's amazing story (he is stricken with a rare and severe form of muscular dystrophy yet has inspired millions with his optimistic outlook) knows the inspirational nature of his work and can guess the challenges involved when setting it to music.
Gilman and his producers chose to keep most of the poems intact, which, combined with the dramatic John Tesh-like production, often gives the songs a heady, almost progressive rock feel. Gilman's voice, which here is slightly deeper and darker than on ONE VOICE and DARE TO DREAM, reinforces the impression, as he often sounds uncannily like Freddy Mercury of Queen. The singer has an obvious passion for the material, which makes the album not only an artistic success but a profoundly moving testament to the power of the human spirit.
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