Secret Canon Vol II

Product Description Dayna Kurtz's Secret Canon, Vol. 2 will be released on June 4 and is a collection of uncovered blues and R&B gems from the 1940's-1960's. Dayna has been researching music for this project for months to come up with just the right material. In addition, Secret Canon, Vol. 2 will also contain a few of Dayna's smoky and seductive originals. The sessions for the recording took place in New York as well as Danya's new home in New Orleans. Review Rich as the darkest Godiva chocolate, the voice gets into your bones until you can barely sleep at night and can t get through the day without it....Kurtz sounds at times like her musical DNA contains traces of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, not to mention the worlds great cabaret singers. --Paste Dayna Kurtz new album, Secret Canon Vol. 2, is a thing of beauty. The followup to last year s Secret Canon 1, Secret Canon Vol. 2 is a collection of rare blues and jazz covers from the 1940-60s with a few originals in the same vein. Dayna calls the album her New Orleans record. It s bluesy, it s bold and so very, very classic. I was shocked to discover that the opener I Look Good in Bad is a Dayna Kurtz original. The song structure, lyrics and instrumentation seem so classic it could easily be a Bessie Smith cover. It s one of many songs on the album that showcase the rich and robust range of Dayna s voice. M.C. Records was kind enough to allow me to share the song, which you can stream below. Dayna also delivers a stunningly beautiful and emotive rendering of the vintage soul ballad Reconsider Me originally recorded by Johnny Adams, but probably best known as a 1970s country hit by Narvel Felt. You can stream that song at MC Records. Other highlights include One More Kiss, Same Time, Same Place, All I Ask is Your Love and I ll Be a Liar. I love, love, love this album. Fiercely, immensely, wholeheartedly. It reminds me of the first time I heard Dayna s magnificent voice at Mountain Stage in 2002 (sadly my Muruch review of that concert was lost in the great archive disaster of 2005). I had never heard of Dayna before that concert, which I attended to see Natalie Merchant. Dayna walked out onto the stage, sat down in a wooden chair, and tuned her guitar for a few minutes without saying a word. Then she opened her mouth to sing Love Gets in the Way (from Postcards from Downtown) and her extraordinary, soaring voice commanded the attention of every single audience member. Like the classic songs she chose to cover on Secret Canon Vol. 2, Dayna s voice just gets better with age. --Muruch.com DAYNA KURTZ/Secret Canon Vol. 2: And we aren't going to like a Jersey girl into Stax because...? This deep voiced blues momma doesn't need to belt with all the other tricks in her bag and she shows them to fine display on this collection tunes mostly from the mid century's various war years. Smoky, blue lights in the basement stuff, Kurtz is not an atavistic recidivist but she respects the blues/R&B tradition and makes her own mark on it leaving no room for doubt. Killer stuff that any deep blues fan will recognize is the real deal. Well done. --Midwest Record