Album Notes

From The Heart by Eric van Aro opens with And When I Die. This classic, probably made most famous by Blood, Sweat and Tears, takes on a whole new 'back on the bayou' feel with some great slide guitar. The CD continues with a fine funky rendition Rupert Holmes' Queen Bee. This brings us to From The Heart (Carly Simon). Not one of my favorites but only because I don't like the song. Eric does a masterful job on this song which, to me, seems like it would be very difficult timing-wise.

Letters That Cross In The Mail brings us to the jazzy lounge-like Georgy Porgy. When we came to If I Had Rhythm In My Nursery Rhymes, I concluded that I really like Eric's choice of music. You won't hear it on the local grunge station, but this cut from the 20s is nearly as fun to listen to as it must've been to make. Special mention goes to Eric's uncle Silvio who did the clarinet on this cut. It's sooo cool. That's how it's done.

Easy Street brings us into I Wish I Could Be, the only original cut on the CD. While it's a little more pop-ish, this track fits in so well with the rest of the CD. When you can take one track written by 'newer' writers and put it in the middle of long established writers without seeing a significant difference, that says a lot.

The last two cuts on the CD are Joni Mitchell's Nathan LaFraneer and Rainbow Sleeve from Tom Waits. Looking at the rest of the music picked for From The Heart, it doesn't surprise me to see a Tom song. And Eric does it well.

reviewed by: Chris Lonsberry - (http://www.mp3.com/ChrisLonsberry) on 2002-06-22