EntertainmentMagazine.net / AZentertain.com
|
Summer 2004 Musical Notes |
Cynthia Hart
"Let Me Make Music In Your Life"
Singer
and songwriter Cynthia Hart believes everyone has the power to make
their life as wonderful as they want, and that philosophy is reflected
in the lyrics of her album, Let Me Make Music In Your Life, which is
full of music that is positive, uplifting, spiritual and loving.
"The premise that I base my life on is that we can create our own reality," explains Hart. "God/Goddess always says yes. It's a very powerful and empowering way of looking at life. This thought process has not only helped me heal pain in my life, but also assisted me in making my dream come true to become a recording artist and share my music with the world."
Hart's Let Me Make Music In Your Life is an album of varied love songs -- to another person, a former lover, a child (or inner child), someone deceased, the world at large, the Supreme Being and even mystical places.
While this album is soft "adult contemporary" pop music with delicate hints of new age, jazz, folk and Broadway styles, Hart also has a strong background in church music, opera, pop, blues and rock'n'roll. More information about her CD is available at her website (www.cynthiahartsongs.com).
Cynthia first made her mark in the music business with the Southern pop-roc! that toured 300-days-a-year for more than a decade and shared stages all c during the heyday of acts such as The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, Atlanta Rhythm Section, The James Gang, Steve Miller, ZZ Top, Bob Seger, Kansas, Marshall Tucker Band. Savoy Brown, James Taylor, The Vyrds and Tina Turner.
Dreamer played all original music and Cynthia, as lead singer, wrote the lyrics. "The big record companies showed interest, but we never got the right deal that would have given us a chance at national stardom," Hart says. "The band did, however, go into the studio and record atvarious times with the Atlanta Rhythm Section producing as well as other top producers such asJeff Glixman (Kansas). Dreamer released two singles -- "Fantasy Man" and "Be My Man" that both received solid airplay throughout the Southeast part of the United States. In addition,Cynthia sang onstage many times with Lynyrd Skynyrd during jam sessions.
"I
spent 15 years in the trenches with different bands playing pop, rock
and blues, and touring constantly," Cynthia remembers. "Eventually I got
disillusioned with the music business. I had to take some time off.
When I started singing again in the mid-Nineties, it was for all the
right reasons. Then in 2000 when I was vacationing on St. Thomas in the
Caribbean I had a vivid dream about making music. From that moment on I
began writing my own music and lyrics. My goals are simple -- to find
personal fulfillment in creating good music, and to offer the world a
musically uplifting message in hopes that it will help people."
Let Me Make Music In Your Life contains eight original compositions plus a cover version of the Linda Thompson and Richard Marx song "To Where You Are" which she discovered on Josh Groban's debut album. "I chose it to show how thin the veil is between this world and where you go when you pass on." The title tune dreams of a mate the singer had yet to meet ("singing about it helps it come true"). "Time To Let You Go" details the end of a love affair. "The Power of Your Love" tells the listener they can change the world with love. "When you love directly, or when you send out love into the world with prayers and meditations, it makes a difference. It changes the world." "Love of Mine" captures the feeling of pure paternal love for children or even the inner child that lives within us all.
"This Moment Here" encourages the listener to worry less about the past and the future, but to stop and enjoy each moment of life as it happens. The song "You Are loved Come Home" states that the God/Goddess of the universe loves us as human beings, but when our earthly experiences are done, wants us to return to the Supreme Being's heavenly home. Two tunes tell the tales of legendary, mystical civilizations. "lemurian Dreamer" speaks of a now-vanished land in the Pacific Ocean and details the life of ancient ones called "dreamers" who traveled from festival to festival dreaming for people who found those dreams always came true. "Atlantis" celebrates the lost continent that sunk in the Atlantic Ocean but not before ships set sail to spread bits of that ancient culture throughout the world.
The album was thoughtfully produced by Stan Henley, who also contributed flute, clarinet, synths, bass guitar, percussion and background vocals. The associate producer was Jim Boling (Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack, Dolly Parton), who added flugelhorn, keyboards, strings and additional horns. Rod Henley (Manhattan Transfer, Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys) played piano and is credited with most of the orchestral arrangements. Bill Hatcher (Trammell Starks, Col. Bruce Hampton) was the guitarist, but also played harmonica, organ, bass and various ethnic instruments. Bob Bevins added saxophone to "Time To let You Go." Sheri Henley, a chart-making recording artist in her own right, contributed background vocals. Stan, Rod and Bill all previously recorded with the legendary vocal group The Four Freshmen.
According to Cynthia's family, as a child she was singing before she could talk. She grew up in the country, 12 miles from the small town of Dublin, Georgia. "The first recorded music I heard was a Hank Williams record that my grandfather played, and I had him play them over and over." Cynthia was always performing for her family, and when she was ten she began to sing solos at the local Baptist church. She started studying piano and voice when she was 12, and during high school she performed in various stage productions. "I always loved Broadway musicals like 'West Side Story' and 'My Fair Lady', as well as singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin."
Cynthia not only sang every Sunday at church, but also at hundreds of weddings and funerals. She was awarded a scholarship and went on to study voice and piano at West Georgia University. She was the featured soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra doing "The Messiah," and also sang with The Robert Shaw Chorale (Atlanta's top vocal group). But the vocal music studies at the university centered on opera and eventually her interests turned to popular music.
"I became a professional singer in a variety of groups for about four years covering songs by the folk-pop acts of that time -- The Mamas and The Papas, Peter Paul & Mary, Judy Collins, Joan Baez." This was followed by her decade-long stint as the leader of the band Dreamer, one of the top acts from the Atlanta area during the explosion of the "Southern Rock Sound."
After successfully pursuing other interests for several years, she began singing again at special events (charity shows, spiritual meetings), and the encouragement she received led to her new solo recording career. Her musical interests expanded as she got into the music of Sade, Enya, Diana Krall and Sarah Mclachlan.
"As I started exploring my spiritual beliefs, I wrote more and more songs with positive messages, especially about healing yourself. I'm trying to offer a voice of hope and let people know they can change the world by changing themselves. When your reality changes, everything around you changes. It's the laws of physics and the ripple effect."