Dame Shirley Bassey - still wowing fans after 70 albums

Album of the week has got be the forever young Dame Shirley Bassey, and I Owe It All To You.
Dame Shirley BasseyDame Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey

Having released over 70 albums she is indeed an icon on several levels from her definitive Bond themes, (Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker) like no other to her wowing Glastonbury in her wellies.

This lady is now 83 but her voice still has a wall of sound when needed and tenderly fulfilling on songs like I Don’t Know What Love Is. Carefully mixing new songs with well chosen oldies, Maybe This Time and Always On My Mind sound personal and heartfelt while I Made It Through The Rain becomes a song of hope and of these times.

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The opening overture leads us into the anthemic Queen opus Who Wants To Live Forever delivered with style, the new arrangement of Almost Like Being In Love could have been orchestrated by Nelson Riddle.

A great swing number while Adagio is the show stopping crescendo. Charlie Chaplin’s Smile is also revived and You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet is swing again like New York New York but her sincerity on I’m Here becomes her career song, her own My Way.

The first dedicated rock Lock Down album is released this week called 70s Rock Down with all that’s good in rock music from the 1970s.

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On three CDs titled tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 we get all the guitar we ever needed to lift the spirits. If I said Queen, Kiss, Free, Blue Oyster Cult, Kansas, Slade, Rory Gallagher, Santana, Joe Walsh, Rainbow, Deep Purple and Eric Clapton you get my drift. Eric’s own project The Crossroads Guitar Festival 2019 is out now too over three CDs or six LPs.

This was a fund-raising concert and many legends like Albert Lee and Buddy Guy came along for support. Vince Gill is here as is Sheryl Crow and James Bay does his party piece Hold Back The River. Highlights for me were to hear Jeff Beck on Caroline No and Eric joined by Peter Frampton for While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Andy Fairweather Low on Wonderful Tonight and John Mayer sharing Layla.

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