Album Reviews

Roses For Panjo – Somewhere Beautiful

Artist:     Roses For Panjo

Album:     Somewhere Beautiful

Label:     Blue Feather Records

Release Date:     12/08/2014

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A beautiful ode to her ailing father, singer/songwriter Tanya Leah’s project Roses for Panjo releases Somewhere Beautiful to an audience of dreamers and enthusiasts. Teeming with sparkling lullabies and hopeful–albeit sometimes heartbreaking–ballads, Somewhere Beautiful has turned into something truly beautiful.

In 2011, Tanya Leah’s father suffered a crippling stroke that led Leah to pause her comforting role as a singer/songwriter and take on the daunting position of caregiver. With an abundance of research claiming the positive effects music can have on illness, Leah allowed her father’s progress to provide inspiration for both she and him, thus creating the Roses for Panjo project, which has produced music dedicated to Leah’s father (“Panjo”) in an effort to instill his own positive state of mind while also giving Leah’s listeners a reason to smile for themselves.

Somewhere Beautiful employs a healthy variation: songs like “Sail” and “Dream With Me” act as slow-paced, soft ballads, with Leah’s stunning soprano accentuated, while tracks like “Everything & Anything” and “Signs of Spring” are uplifting anthems, pleas to recognize the good times, Leah’s demand for bliss apparent in her eager, tender voice. Her range is obvious on this record, vocals booming and playful or lavish and intimate, not to mention her version of “What A Wonderful World” does it justice and more.

A bouncy ten tracks of instrumental excitement (tracks often are joined by the sweet blows of ukuleles, accordions, tubas and whistles) accompanied by Leah’s pure, pretty vocals, Somewhere Beautiful is a gorgeous representation of love by way of charming harmonies, reassuring lyrics and rosy music.

– Savannah Davanzo

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