Amy & Adams new and first album Sail Away should come with this listener advisory - warning: this recording contains memorable humable melodies, and intelligent poetic lyrics. Sail Away is a lovely adventure on a sea of beautiful lush lyrics wrapped in hypnotic tunes, a pleasure cruise to many musical ports of call, from folk ditties, to sumptuous love ballads, to primitive bluegrass, to New Orleans tinged rag, to the truly unlabelable.
Sail Away is filled with passion from the infatuative Surrender to the spiritually inspired Let Me Be. It also brims with lighthearted fun, Teddy Bear, for instance is Amy's declaration of how much easier it is to love a stuffed animal than the modern male (written pre-Mark, of course). I'm Flying is a stirring tribute to the young actress Jean Seberg, which invokes the many voices that must have influenced Jean's choice to follow her road to stardom. In the end it is her exuberant passionate voice that holds sway.
Amy and Mark both have lovely and earthy voices, and sing with an urgency and immediacy that will touch each listener, conveying the soul of each of these wonderfully crafted tunes, twelve in all. Their acoustic 6 & 12 string guitar work shines through just the right mix of instrumentation.
So where have Amy & Adams been all your life? Before they married three and a half years ago, and became Amy and Mark Adams-Westin, each had followed their separate musical stars. Amy Westin was born and caught her musical bug in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Mark Adams started out singing with his family in Marshalltown, Iowa. Each has toured through the usual, coffee houses, rock clubs, musical stages, churches, and the bedroom. In other words, they've been around. Now they're Amy & Adams, and ready to Sail Away with you!
