Sony
2007
Into White
About This Album
Listening to Into White, it's difficult to find a place where it begins and ends. Unlike 2005's Moonlight Serenade, or her many other standards records, this is a set that doesn't feel like one. For starters, Carly Simon has come full circle. There is no symphony orchestra here, none of the schmaltz and syrup that have plagued almost every one of her recordings since 1997's Film Noir (2000's Bedroom Tapes was an exception). This does not mean that the album is void of sentimentality. How can anyone record Stephen Foster's "Oh Susanna" or Jimmie Davis' "You Are My Sunshine" or the eternal lullaby "I Gave My Love a Cherry" without it? For starters, there is the song selection. But these songs are woven into a strange, multi-colored, intimate fabric with Lennon and McCartney's "Blackbird," and the title cut (written and performed so wonderfully by Cat Stevens on 1970s Tea for the Tillerman; it need never be done again). Simon is backed by a close-knit studio band of friends and family, from co-producer and engineer (and often duet and backing vocalist) Jim Parr, her children Ben and Sally Taylor (with James Taylor; they perform gorgeously on Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes"), keyboardist Teese Gohl, and others.
Track List (try tracks 4,11,12 and 14)

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