"Her turn of phrase is so often breathtaking".
author: Alan Bargebuhr, independent writer/reviewer/contributor Cadence
“ Although I write mostly about jazz/cabaret vocals for Cadence Magazine, my musical interests reach beyond those categories. Usually, I find singer/song-writers of little interest. I find their songs too often strained and cliché laden, as though they all learned to write songs by subscribing to the same song-writing correspondence course.
And, there's Charisse Lowe Kahler and her CD. Her perspective is so damn honest and uniquely human - and her turn of phrase is so often breathtaking. "Arms Around Me Still" moves me to that point that my vision is compromised by a certain effusion from some sort of ducts operating in my eyes. There are lines in other songs - both speaking about "grace" - that thrill me.....literally. One occurs in "What I Need To Know." - "..days of anger, days of grace/one day at a time, heart to heart and face to face." The other is at the end of "Lime Green Sweater," when "having met the devil, and retained his grace/but fell asleep with a smile - On his face" I took those lines very personally.
I come away from each separate listening of this CD with new images etched in my mind. "Bare trees like black lace hemming the edge of the sky," struck me the last time. She is a poet… And her singing voice, her phrasing - all delicious. I consider myself very fortunate to have found this CD in my nocturnal wanderings into the CD Baby catalog's innards.
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A terrific CD
author: Flo Renfroe
I love this CD. You will too!! You will play it over and over and end up singing your heart out along with Charisse!!
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"delights like a scrapbook full of funny and touching moments in real life"
author: David B. Hakan, Songwriters Circle of Kansas City
Charisse Lowe's CD, Places I've Been...People I've Known, delights like a scrapbook full of funny and touching moments in real life. Her Broadway stage voice is comfortable in a variety of styles here from country and folk to jazzy funk and rock. Red Dirt is an evocative look back at growing up in the South. There are wonderful portrait songs here; about Matisse, a widow and an aging dancer. (Is that some Joni influence I hear? Yep.) You'll turn these pages often.
- David B. Hakan, Songwriters Circle of Kansas City
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