Courtenay Day
reviews

I fell for cabaret's Courtenay Day while listening to her Live at Don't Tell Mama CD (reviewed in V16N4), and I've fallen more with STATE OF BLISS (LML Music 151; 45:11). This studio recording takes away the pressure from performing live but doesn't lessen Day's involvement with her songs. It's obvious she thought about the lyrics of Rodgers and Hart's “I Didn't
Know What Time It Was,” Michel Legrand and the Bergmans' “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?,” Billy Barnes' “Something Cool,” and Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin's “Dissertation on the State of Bliss” (sung by Bing Crosby in the film The Country Girl), giving them a conversational tone instead of turning them into drama. It's nice to see Day has a sense of humor, with her choices of David Ross and Marshall Barer's “Beyond Compare” and Brian Lasser's “I'm Becoming My Mother.” As with Day's first CD, Christopher Marlowe gives good piano, with Steve LaSpina on bass, John Redsecker on percussion, and Peter Sanders on cello.

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