I love really really good cabaret singers, Andrea Marcovicci,Diana Krall,Sophie Milman, and long-time singer, Jane Oliver, for example...and now Rose Robbins!...she is unique, wonderful piano, and unusual songs!I have found another incredible artist to add to my collection...Bob Bidinotto raved about Rose and I concur.  Thank you, Bob, and thank you CD Baby for taking chances on these undiscovered and marvelous artists.
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Few songwriters can compose truly compelling melodies. Fewer can write lyrics that rise to the level of poetry. Far fewer can wed memorable melodies to haunting lyrics. Fewer still can sing their own compositions -- let alone with style, flair, and conviction. And among this elite group of songwriter-singers, only a handful can also accompany themselves instrumentally with consummate skill.

But how many can do it all?

Rose Robbins is one of the few, as she demonstrates on her inaugural CD, "Close Your Eyes." She composes unforgettable melodies. Writes lyrics rich in metaphor and exuding passion. Accompanies herself brilliantly on piano, keyboards, and guitar while singing exquisitely, elegantly.

On this collection you'll hear first-rate jazz, rock, blues, R&B, folk, torch songs, ditties of impish whimsy, even the occasional spiritual. But the best are Rose Robbins's enchanting love songs: exuberant in their celebration of newfound passion, heartbreaking in their despair about lost love. Songs like "Blue Sky," "Stained Glass Window," and "Pale Yellow Rose" are the stuff of classics -- songs that grab you by the throat and refuse to let go. 

And she serves them up in a silky, sultry, sexy voice -- a voice that goes down as sweet and smooth as a mixture of whiskey and honey -- a voice that sometimes evokes Diana Krall, sometimes Bette Midler...except that she's better than either. In a few passages of "Whisper," I could even swear that she was channeling Karen Carpenter.

That the world has not yet beaten a path to this woman's door is proof that we do not live in a just world. But I'll make a safe prediction: Rose Robbins is not destined to remain in relative obscurity. 

So when you buy "Close Your Eyes" today, know that you will soon possess a future collector's item. And while you're at it, buy copies of the CD as Christmas presents. 

Your friends and family will love you for it.
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Though perhaps best-known for Luminous, Rose Robbins's new CD contains several songs of equal or greater power -- Whisper, Blue Sky and Falling Down at the top of the list -- and is a wonderful showcase for an incredible talent. Anyone who is moved by a flawless voice singing heartfelt lyrics and effective melodies needs to own this disc, and play it again and again.

It's simply impossible to be unmoved by the emotions in these 11 tracks. Rose Robbins's voice moves effortlessly between desire, longing, pain and humor; she brings beauty out of sadness, and her love songs suggest a depth of passion we would all love to experience.

One might wish for the appropriate full orchestra behind her in place of the backup musicians heard here, more adventurous arranging, and some forays into the extensive world of existing popular and "standard" music, but those are minor quibbles, and only make me eager to hear the many recordings I expect will be forthcoming in future.

Some performers go a lifetime without producing a recording comparable to Close Your Eyes. Rose Robbins starts at the top, and the only way she can go is up.
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