The Performing Songwriter (US Music magazine)

Volume 8, Issue 49
November 2000

For Do-it-yourself Songwriters / Top 12 picks

Review by Russell Hall

(Russell Hall is the Music Editor for Performing Songwriter magazine. He has been contributing editor for six years, and has written for scores of other music magazines including Goldmine, No Depression, Request and All-star. He currently lives in Anderson , SC.)

Christie Grace: Canadian songwriter: Late Bloomer

Produced by Rick Kilburn

The culmination of a life's dream, Christie Grace's debut CD rests on that fertile ground where craft and inspiration meet. Stylistically, Late Bloomer ranges across an eclectic blend of sultry jazz,

Latin -based grooves, and adult oriented pop-all executed with a tight professionalism more befitting a veteran recording artist than a newcomer. Musical references that spring to mind include the recent work of Sting, as well as albums by Sade, Michael Franks, and Paula Cole.

Even more impressive than Grace's composing skills is the manner in which she weaves the substance of her life into her songs. Although Late Bloomer is never maudlin ( in fact, the CD teems with celebration and discovery), Grace's songs are unflinching in their exploration of loss, rebirth, and ultimately, love. A case in point is "Come to Rest", a composition that turns the most harrowing event of Grace's life -the suicide of her father-into a testament of perseverance.

Accompanying Grace on Late Bloomer is an exemplary cast of enablers that includes multi-instrumentalist Bill Runge, pianist

Miles Black , guitarist Robbie Steininger, and drummer Randall Stoll, but make no mistake: Grace's "brushed velvet" voice is the focal instrument on this fine CD. At age 43 Grace may be a late bloomer, but as the expression goes, good things are sometimes worth waiting for.