Word: sweetnesses
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...concert pianist, acclaimed and prosperous, sailing grandly into late middle age. Eva, the daughter (Liv Ullmann in granny glasses, with a few lines of graceful weathering allowed to be visible on her ineffable forehead), is a church organist, the wife of a country pastor, a woman soft, sweet and intelligent. They have not met in seven years, and it is evident that something other than the mother's illustrious career has kept them apart. Recently, however, the mother's life has been disrupted by the death of an old lover, and Eva has reached out in spontaneous affection...
...Burr) affiances her to a middle-aged butcher friend (Clarence Felder). She balks at the match, runs off with a feckless horseplayer (John Glover) and eventually winds up doing nude tableaux in a cabaret. At play's end there are several reconciliations, all of them more bitter than sweet...
...album's best ballad comes from the music of a Ronstadt favorite, J.D. Souther, whose songs have consistently strengthened her albums. This time she picks a slow love song, backed by a sweet pedal steel. "White Rhythm and Blues" ends side one with a sweet, sentimental tone, Ronstadt's voice enveloping the soft electric piano of Dan Grolnick, whose keyboard skills are heavily used in this album...
...bass line, Ronstadt displays the power of her sharp, brassy voice in a heavily throaty verse that rises to an upbeat, bold chorus. The bright, '70s rocker contrasts strongly to "Oooh Baby Baby," a mellow Smokey Robinson tune in which Ronstadt uses two male backup vocalists who add a sweet falsetto giving the song a Motown-like sound. The song works quite well; Ronstadt's voice makes her version of the song just different enough from the original...
Perhaps Ronstadt's strength, because of the power her voice can deliver, lies in the driving rockers. She is sweet in her quietest moments, but even her best slow ballads, like "Desperado" and "Blue Bayou" derive their beauty from the brassy crescendoes which bolster the tunes. On Living in the U.S.A., a song like "Just One Look," one of the weaker compositions before Ronstadt's touches, comes off fairly well because it gives Ronstadt a chance to belt out the lyrics. And that energetic vocal thrust, hardly what you'd expect from a shy, playful, innocent-looking singer who stands...