Dana Countryman - Come Into My Studio

This is the 6th Studio album from Dana Countryman, and along with all his others they sit perfectly with the 60’s retro pop and AM American radio of the early 70’s

Written by: Explorer

ARTIST: Dana Countryman
ALBUM: Come Into My Studio
LABEL: Sterling Swan
SERIAL: NA. CD, Digital Download and Streaming.
YEAR: 2020
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

LINEUP: Dana Countryman – all Instruments * Guest stars include: Brian Gari, Ronnie D’Addario, Dee Long, Probyn Gregory, Matt Tyson, Kai Danzberg, Chad Quist, Scott Bennett, Scott McPherson, Tricia Countryman and Kirkcaldy McKenzie

TRACK LISTING: 01 Come Into My Studio * 02 Take A Little Chance * 03 Where Can My Baby Be? * 04 Every Time You Break My Heart * 05 Same Old Dream * 06 It Happens Every Time * 07 Mrs. Van Bruen * 08 Willow Tree * 09 Ecstasy * 10 You Gotta Love Jeanie Marie * 11 Then She Smiles * 12 Better Let Her Go * 13 The Girl Is Gonna Stay * 14 Whenever You Walk By * 15 Shame, Shame, Shame * 16 It’s Christmas Time * 17 Thanks For Listening! * 18 Good Things Come To Those That Wait (Tracks 17 & 18 CD Only)

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Table of Contents

Background

This is the 6th Studio album from Dana, and along with all his others they sit perfectly with the 60’s retro pop and AM American radio of the early 70’s and along the way paying homage to the greats of those era’s such as the Brill Building stable of writers, as well as icons such as Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and such like.

He’s also assembled a stellar cast to help flesh out his vision and in the process has produced a top-quality album of what I would call ‘Sunshine PowerPop’.

The Songs

16 (18 on the CD version) tracks of nigh on perfect pop music, from the opening uplifting refrain of ‘Come Into My Studio’ all the way through to album closer, the rather (un)seasonal ‘It’s Christmas Time’. ‘Take A Little Chance’ follows the title track and is an exemplary exercise in how to write the perfect Power/Bubblegum pop song, and ‘Where Can My Baby Be’ with it’s beautiful strummed Harp opening is a sublime piece of romantic pop.

Tracks such as ‘Same Old Dream’, and ‘Mrs. Van Buren’ conjures up images of the likes of Barry Manilow and The Carpenters, fantastic melodies and vocal harmonies to die for. ‘Ecstasy’, no not the Raspberries chestnut, but a song just as memorable and so damn catchy, there’s also ‘Better Let Her Go’, which has some very cool Beach Boys touches added to the mix making it another Power Pop winner.

It’s not always sunshine in Dana’s world. ‘Willow Tree’ is a ballad of quite epic proportions and the heart-rendering ‘The Girl Is Gonna Stay’ with its Beatles like acoustic solo in the middle and exquisite vocal performance, is a real album stand out; and the Duet with Tricia Countryman ‘Whenever You Walk By’ is a song straight from the Carpenters songbook. I’m doing a slight disservice to the songs I’ve missed out in this review, but believe me they are all winners.

In Summary

Dana Countryman is an artist I’ve only discovered in the past 18 months and so a lot of backtracking was needed to be done on my part, and I can safely say that all his albums are of exceptional quality. As I mentioned in my review of his ‘Cabaret Of Love’ album back in 2019, this may be a little light for some here at Glory Daze, but for this reviewer at least I find his work to be more than worthy to be included here.

This album is a perfect tonic for the times we are living through. It evokes memories of simpler and yes, better times. This record took me back to my younger days, that’s quite a long time ago I might add! Now I’m not saying that what we have here is old music, it’s retro-sounding without a doubt, but it has that happy knack of still sounding new and fresh. This is a ‘Feel Good’ album, pure and simple, and I love it.