EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL
NOW
Folk Radio UK -
by Mike Davies October 30, 2014
"I can't grieve
anymore, I've seen so many sail away from my shore, never to
come through the door again." The opening lines of the
piano backed title track from the Austin-based
singer-songwriter Christine Albert's sixth solo album
Everything's Beautiful Now which bear witness to the deaths
of more than a dozen close friends and family members in
recent years....read more
here
EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL NOW
FolkWords - by
Tim Carroll December 30, 2014
Music offers powerful dialogues about life, love, peace
and beauty. It also reaches those places where sorrow, loss
and death reside. There’s an elemental contact to express
the extent of the human condition. ‘Everything’s Beautiful
Now’ from Christine Albert reaches out to touch that
condition through a collection of songs written as her
tribute to friends and loved ones that have ‘sailed away to
new horizons’. And if you’ve ever ‘stayed behind’ as someone
close to you has set out on that last great adventure, then
this album shares Christine’s view and offers ways to put it
all into perspective. Make no mistake, this is not a maudlin
set of ‘tear jerkers’ (although there’s moments when you may
experience water-filled eyes) neither is it an attempt to
beguile anyone from grief - this is reverence based on
accepting transition and understanding beyond anything else,
it’s just another trip we all take....read more
here
EVERYTHING'S
BEAUTIFUL NOW
Austin American-Statesman
- by Peter Blackstock September 23, 2014
Christine Albert wastes no time in
staking the turf of her new album “Everything’s Beautiful
Now.” Here’s how the opening song begins:
“I can’t grieve anymore/ I’ve seen so many
sail away from my shore/ Never to come through the door
again.”
A fixture in Austin’s singer-songwriter
community since moving here from New Mexico in 1982, Albert
confronts the reality and finality of death on many of the
record’s tracks. “Over the last several years I have
experienced the loss of many people close to me,” she
explains in the liner notes. An “In Memory Of” dedication
lists her father and mother-in-law, several good friends,
and fellow Austin musicians including Sarah Elizabeth
Campbell, Caryl P. Weiss and Steven Fromholz....read
more
here
EVERYTHING'S
BEAUTIFUL NOW
Lone Star Music Magazine
- by D.C.
Bloom October/November 2014
There’s a time – and music – for Texas two-stepping and
knocking back cold longnecks in Texas dance halls, and then
there’s a time – and music – for reflecting on that cold
hard fact from the Gospel of Hank Williams that none of us
get out of this world alive. Veteran Austin songbird
Christine Albert’s "Everything’s Beautiful Now" is a
collection of beautifully crafted songs born out of the
sorrow and contemplation from seeing several beloved friends
and family members pass on in recent years. From loss comes
lyrical elegance; from heartache comes harmonic convergence
with the precious memories that remain....read more
here
EVERYTHING'S
BEAUTIFUL NOW The Alternate Root - by Donna Marie
Miller October 24, 2014
Christine Albert’s serene
expression masks a life torn by personal violence and loss.
Her spiritual calm on stage seems to transcend memories of
surviving rape and also being struck down by a drunk driver
along a dark stretch of Texas highway. The original songs on
her first solo album in 20 years, "Everything’s Beautiful
Now", express messages of hope and renewal. As a result, her
Austin audience attending the CD release party at the
Strange Brew Sept. 25 felt lifted up and transported to an
ethereal space created without walls or religious dogma.
Albert wrote or co-wrote six of the songs
on the new album. Like her “Flower of the Moon” song
co-written with her husband, Chris Gage, Albert illuminates
the darkest moments in life as a time for growth and for
transformation.
“I believe in the holiness of whatever
comes my way/and I’ve learned not to resist the urge to
pray...”
...read more
here
More
comments about "Everything's Beautiful Now"...
"The past few years were personally quite hard for Christine
Albert. Hard in the respect that Texas lost quite a few
loved ones in a short time. You know, that phase where we
all must pass and it just keeps getting closer with aging.
However, as befits a good songwriter Albert took full
advantage of the situation. As a tribute to those who went,
she coped with her grief in some new, great songs, along
with material by Shake Russell, Dana Cooper, Tom Peterson,
Jackson Browne and Warren Zevon, all ending up on her new,
brilliant album."
Benny Metten / Ctrl Alt Country
"Exquisite songs with guitars, lap steel,
mandolin and piano, topped off by Christine Albert's
soothing vocals."
Cis Van Looy / Keys & Chords
“On her latest album ‘Everything's
Beautiful Now’, Austin songstress Christine Albert is paying
tribute to all the beloved ones that she has lost during the
last few years. Hopeful memories in intimate and emotional
songs that are enriched with beautiful cover versions of
great farewell songs are all to be found on probably the
best album in her long lasting career”.
Valére Sampermans / Rootstime
“Music
for Autumn: A Season of Telling Stories” - Kerry
Dexter |
