Kenny Rogers Album: “With Love”

Description :

Personnel: Kenny Rogers (vocals); John Willis, Randy Dorman (acoustic & electric guitars); Pat Bergeson (electric guitar, harmonica); Rick Harper (electric guitar); Cindy Reynolds Wyatt (harp); Bobby Taylor (oboe, English horn); Jim Horn (saxophone, flute); George Tidwell (trumpet, flugelhorn); Tom McAninch (French horn); Shane Keister (piano, Hammond B-3 organ, electric piano, synthesizer); David Briggs, Steve Glassmeyer (piano); Gene Golden, Warren Hartman (synthesizer); Farrell Morris (vibraphone, percussion, timpani); Bob Burns (acoustic & electric basses); Paul Leim (drums, percussion); Lynn Hammann (drums); The Nashville String Section; Jana King, Lisa Silver. <p>Principally recorded at Creative Recording, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. <p>Kenny Rogers singing contemporary romantic standards? Why not--he's already tackled folk (with the New Christie Minstrels), pop psychedelia (with the First Edition), and mainstream country (songs too numerous to mention). For that matter, one of his very first appearances on record, the Bobby Doyle Three's 1962 IN A MOST UNUSUAL WAY, was, in fact, an LP of standards. Unsurprisingly, Rogers approaches the songs here rather conservatively, with smooth phrasing and nary a hint of swing. Then again, he's quite unabashedly crooning here, not trying to be Sinatra, and given that his warm baritone seems not to have aged a day, the results are listenable in the extreme. Celebrity cameo: Neil Young's longtime producer and collaborator David Briggs shows up here on piano.

Not a bad collection. Recommended if you already own some of Rogers best know material. If you are just starting out check out "ten years of gold" or the "greatest hit's" CDs rather than this. Kenny's version of "I will always love you" is not so bad. Espically when you remember this song was actually done first by a country artist - Dolly Parton, the song's writer (Whitney Houston coverd it).