CHRISTINE ALBERT - TEXAFRANCE

Music City Texas - by John Conquest
January 1992
Christine Albert / Texafrance

"Raised in a French-speaking household, Albert majored in music and languages and wound up singing country music in Texas, so this bilingual album (all the songs have French and English lyrics) pulls together some major strands in her life and does it all with class and style.  The musicianship, as with any Albert project, is impeccable: The trademark lead mandolin of Paul Glasse, Spencer Starnes on basses, Danny Levin - keyboards, violin and cello, Marty Muse - pedal steel, Ponty Bone - accordion, James Fenner - percussion, Steve Meador - drums and Mitch Watkins - guitars.  A wealth of talent that Watkins, who also produces, uses sparingly behind two Albert originals, La Lumiere De L'amour (outstanding) and Je Reve De Toi, four Anglo-French songs, by Jane Gillman, Gershwin, David Ball and Bob Seger, and five Franco-English...Je T'appartiens (Let It Be Me), Amor Tambien (wonderful arrangment) and the Edith Piaf classics La Vie En Rose, Hymne A L'Amour and Je Ne Regrette Rien, though Albert's crystalline soprano is a far cry from Piaf's caporal and cognac rasp.  Never committing fully to either country or cabaret, Albert has deftly created a whole new musical category of her own."

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