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| The Orchard | 
 enlarge | Artist: Lizz Wright
Label: Verve Forecast
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $5.62
You Save: $8.36 (60%)
New (53) Used (24) from $4.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 414
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 001029202
UPC: 602517511262
EAN: 0602517511262
ASIN: B000Y14TXO
Release Date: February 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Coming Home | | • | My Heart | | • | I Idolize You | | • | Hey Mann | | • | Another Angel | | • | When I Fall | | • | Leave Me Standing Alone | | • | Speak Your Heart | | • | This Is | | • | Song For Mia | | • | Thank You | | • | Strange |
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Album Description
Wright's collaboration with Craig Street continues on The Orchard. While her prior releases boasted contributions from some of the jazz world's most respected jazz players, The Orchard features an eclectic cast that includes noted singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon, who co-wrote several songs with Wright; Calexico members Joey Burns and John Convertino; avant-guitar hero Oren Bloedow; longtime Bob Dylan sideman Larry Campbell; Ollabelle member Glenn Patscha; and guest vocalists Catherine Russell and Marc Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius). The Orchard's fluid, intimate performances reflect the unpretentious spirit in which the music was created. The project actually began with a set of photographs taken by Wright in her rural hometown, focusing on the orchard of the title, a setting that she's known since childhood. That organic approach was maintained throughout the recording process, which took place at studios in upstate New York's Catskill mountains, in Tucson, Arizona and Brooklyn. The sessions emphasized spontaneity and chemistry. That rare ability to exist within the musical moment is one of the qualities that make Lizz Wright a special artist and The Orchard a career milestone. "This record was a huge learning experience, in every way, and I think it showed me a lot about myself," she states. "I never would have imagined that I would have written some of the things I wrote on this record, or told some of these stories. But I felt really free and I really let myself go, and I surprised myself."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 Like a Sleeping Lion. February 28, 2008
33 out of 63 found this review helpful
The woman's voice is maddeningly beautiful. Heavy and sweet like molasses. And this album does it justice. Not to knock her other two albums, those were in there own right above average, but if you listened to her sing just once you knew there was something more, a fire to her voice she didn't tap into yet, but it stirred in the background.
It's on display all over this disc. It sounds as if Nina Simone made a country album, with all the trials, terrors and pain of her best work played up with fiddles, sullen choruses and just the right amount of a slow burn. Songs like "It Makes No Difference" is proof; it just breathes on its own, like a good song should.
"Song For Mia" with its guitar and piano leading into Wright's quivering voice is a soul cleansing revelation. As is "When I Fall," her delivery betraying the undercurrent of insecurity.
These songs wouldn't work so well if the voice wasn't so bonded to the music. Wright isn't striving or belting to give you angst. It's all subtle heartbreak, oozing out of that alto like smoke from a chimney in winter. I won't even get into her ripping through "I Idolize You" where she gives it a pensive, cautious warning to her lover instead of the rawness and sexy punch of Ike & Tina Turner's version -- it works.
Brilliant record.
Wright Goes Home Again March 1, 2008
18 out of 40 found this review helpful
I must admit, I had to wait to comment on Lizz Wright's considerably warm pipes. I have been disappointed with so many young artists who either forsake all originality for the quick buck or they fizzle out after the first album. I listened to her first CD, the Jazz-Pop oriented SALT, and then the ethereal DREAMING WIDE AWAKE. Now that she has released THE ORCHARD, I cannot hold my tongue any longer.
Wright is unquestionably one of the most original and sincere young artists to arrive on the music scene in the last three decades. THE ORCHARD finds Wright again produced by Craig Street who has an uncanny ability to get vocalists to dig deep into their own psyches. Wright's smokey vocals blend folk, country, soul into what sounds and smells like her (and my) native Georgia. This time out, however, Wright co-wrote 8 of the 12 tracks on this CD. Her most frequent compositional partner here is the underrated Toshi Reagon (daughter of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, noted historian, vocalist and founder of Sweet Honey `N the Rock).
The opening track, a Wright/T. Reagon composition "Coming Home" has a gospel/anthem quality. "Leave Me Standing Alone" is a decidedly funky uptempo plea. Yet Wright does best when she shows off her considerable interpretive skills on the old Ike & Tina Turner chestnut "I Idolize You." Her reading of Patsy Cline's classic mid-tempo "Strange" is slowed down here and turned into a languid and haunting torch song.
But buyer beware. This is not Soul music; it is not Folk; it is not Jazz; it is not Blues; and it is not Country. But it contains components of all of the above. It reminds the listener of the hybrid that is Southern music, and Georgia music in particular. I can smell the Georgia pines and feel the red clay between my toes with each listen.
All of Wright's albums tend to become more impressive and more enjoyable with each listen. THE ORCHARD continues that tradition. Wright's deep and serene introspection may not appeal to all listeners. She almost requires that the listener bring something of him/herself to the table. But if you hang around awhile, you will not be disappointed.
Lizz Wright is all right with me March 15, 2008
13 out of 48 found this review helpful
Lizz Wright reprises her collaboration with producer Craig Street for this set of rich, warm, southern-flavoured soul songs. It's said that the songs are inspired by Wright's memories (and picture slides) of earlier times in the southern state of Georgia, which is where she grew up. She has thus created a very personal musical statement here. Apart from her voice - that resonating gospel-trained contralto - it's her no-frills, totally natural approach to her music that wins me over every time. It's all very organic, with lots of acoustic guitar and other live instruments.
My overall favourite tune on here is the thumping Ike Turner song "I Idolize You" with its great blues guitar riff but others, like "Coming Home", "Another Angel", the mesmerising "Speak Your Heart" with its haunting backing vocal by Marc Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius) and the incredibly beautiful and heartfelt "Song For Mia" are not far behind. The bonus track "Strange", written by Fred Burch & Mel Tillis, is a killer.
And check this out for a sample of the lyrics: "I know what you wanna say/ I see the words behind your eyes," Wright sings on the opening of "Speak Your Heart" and the opening line of "Strange" goes: "Strange how you stopped loving me, how you stopped needing me, when she came along/ Oh, how strange."
Or how about the chorus of "Hey Mann"?: "Hey Mann, what you doin' here?/ I don't remember lettin' you in/ Hey Mann, how d'you get in here?/ You're in my heart without consent."
I can only speak for myself of course but these are the kinds of lyrics that take me places. This is what soul music is all about.
But I like all the songs on here, really. Established fans - if they're anything like me - will fall in love with this on first listen but I do wonder if there's anything on here that might grab new fans and draw them in. Personally I'd recommend they go try out Salt and Dreaming Wide Awake first and then come get this if they like both of them, as I think they both had more songs that had what one might call 'instant appeal'.
Not that I'm suggesting this is a lesser album than her first two. Wright co-wrote most of the songs and I think she's done a good job. Bottom line: if you're looking for a genuine female soul singer who sings songs of love but keeps it clean and well above the waistline, it doesn't get any better than Lizz Wright.
 With this fine album, she has found 'her' voice. August 13, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Lizz Wright has never been shy of experimentation with her sound - seemingly exempt from any commercial pressure, she has been allowed a journey (perhaps by her label) that many of her contemporaries would truly envy.
"The Orchard" continues with evolution of her artistry off the beaten path and the result is an incredibly personal album.
Working again with producer Craig Street (a producer famous for his work with a broad palette of singers such as Cassandra Wilson, k.d. lang, Me'Shell 'Ndegeocello), she moves further away from the accessible jazz of her 2003 debut "Salt" and toward contemporary soul without sacrificing any of her music's sensuality or spare beauty.
Her debut album was a great success critically, but "Dreaming Wide Awake" was an attempt at Norah Jones pop/jazz.
Now, Wright is back on the right track working with folk/blues ace Toshi Reagon on half the dozen cuts.
"The Orchard" is the mostly self-written album and it reflects her journey through life, starting with her life growing up in the small, rural church town of Hahira, Georgia. She may be technically considered a Jazz artist, but she's got plenty of Soul and Rhythm & Blues in her music as well.
The CD features an eclectic cast that includes noted singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon, who co-wrote several songs with Wright; Calexico members Joey Burns and John Convertino; avant-guitar hero Oren Bloedow; longtime Bob Dylan sideman Larry Campbell; Ollabelle member Glenn Patscha; and guest vocalists Catherine Russell and Marc Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius).
A youth spent singing in southern churches has left an indelible mark on the music of jazz-pop phenom Lizz Wright. But above and beyond her innate soulfulness -- her father was the preacher and musical director of her hometown church in Hahira, Georgia -- the young singer's strongest attribute is her tenacity.
When you first listen to her voice, many great names come to mind: Anita Baker, Cassandra Wilson, Regina Belle and Tracy Chapman.
Let it be said here: Lizz Wright is in a class all her own: the timbre of her voice is what strikes you first - rich and strong, infused with gospel and the vocal heritage of jazz.
Her knack for writing and interpreting intensely personal songs make it difficult to place her anywhere but in the heart.
She commits herself fully to her third effort, including the majority of the material she co-wrote. But something truly awesome transpires when she settles into hits by Led Zeppelin and Patsy Cline, each of which culminates with mind-blowing oomph.
In fact she luxuriates in her sprawling cover of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You", and her rendition of the Patsy Cline hit "Strange" is sublimely dreamlike.
Like any great singer, Wright has the ability to completely re-imagine and inhabit classic songs. She has the competence to get right inside her material, because she has an enviable ability to make focused, commercial music of great honesty.
Her voice, a large, contralto sound, often slow and heavy, is packed with emotion and commands attention, like on the opening track "Coming Home", a ballad with a prominent beat, a song that seems a blend between a spiritual and rock music and on the vibrant "My Heart".
The producer Craig Street, renowned for his understated, skilful recordings, doesn't overplay Wright's spectacular voice; instead, he drapes it in a polished contemporary jazz context mixed with blues and R&B plus a trace of pop and rock.
She responds with subtle grace and seeming sincerity, radiating a self-possession and maturity beyond her years.
Standout tracks : the intimate "Song for Mia", arranged in slow waltz-time; "The Silence", all pulsing piano and brushed-snare sixteenths and her blues-inflected, sultry interpretation of Ike Turner's "I Idolize You", where she oozes with primal desire.
It's not jazz, soul, blues or gospel - it's heart music.
"I'd been trained in choral, gospel and a little bit of opera", she says, "and wanted to move away from those styles. I love songs that create moments, that are very personal and that tell a story".
Whith this fine album, she has found "her" voice.
A Touch of Soul A Sprinkle of Jazz June 19, 2008
5 out of 18 found this review helpful
The Orchard what a fabulous CD!! I was introduced to this wonderful singer by a friend and what an introduction. I haven't stopped listening to it yet. Each track speaks to my heart and soul taking me placing I've been and have never visited. My my my where does a 28 yr old get this power, spirit and emotion from I will never understand. But I am glad she is anointed with this gift.
The Orchard is the perfect title an orchard is where you plant fruit trees, nut trees or sugar maple. Ms. Wright is certainly planting seeds for trees with this CD. Her sultry voice belting out hard notes that vibrate my soul and by the time the music hits me the sound has softened into a sweet melody caressing my body. I love this CD..oh yeah I said that already.
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