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Melody Gardot: Worrisome Heart

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Verve Records
Released: 2007.12.05
Time:
 33:14
Category: Jazz, Blues
Producer(s): Melody Gardot, Glenn Barratt
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.melodygardot.co.uk
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2016
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Worrisome Heart (Melody Gardot) - 4:21
[2] All That I Need Is Love (Melody Gardot) - 2:36
[3] Gone (Melody Gardot) - 2:50
[4] Sweet Memory (Melody Gardot) - 3:21
[5] Some Lessons (Melody Gardot) - 5:23
[6] Quiet Fire (Melody Gardot) - 4:13
[7] One Day (Melody Gardot) - 2:02
[8] Love Me Like A River Does (Melody Gardot) - 4:06
[9] Goodnite (Melody Gardot) - 3:04
[10] Twilight (Melody Gardot) - 1:01

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Melody Gardot - Creative Director, Design, Guitar, Layout Design, Piano, Producer, Vocals, Vox Organ

Joel Bryant - Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3 Organ, Wurlitzer
Mike Brenner - Lap Steel Guitar
Jef Lee Johnson - Guitar
Barney McKenna - Guitar
Paul Klinefelter - Bass
Ken Pendergast - Bass
Kurt Johnston - Dobro
David Mowry - Dobro
Ron Kerber - Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone
Matt Cappy - Trumpet
Patrick Hughes - Trumpet
Stan Slotter - Trumpet
Diane Monroe - Violin
Charlie Patierno - Drums, Percussion

Glenn Barratt - Engineer, Mixing, Producer
Dave Gerhart - Engineer
Bernie Grundman - Mastering
Paul Chessell - Design
Shervin Lainez - Photography
Lisa Hansen - Release Coordinator
Cameron Mizell - Release Coordinator
John Newcott - Release Coordinator
Jerry Lee Smith - Creative Assistance

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Melody Gardot's debut recording, released in 2006, came two years after she suffered a near fatal automobile accident, the differently able Gardot triumphing in accomplishing what many others, including her, could only dream of. This project has her singing and playing guitar and a little piano, but more so presenting this project of all original material. Gardot has an interesting personal story, but even more intriguing music that straddles the line between lounge jazz, folk, and cowgirl songs. She's part sophisticated chanteuse, college sophomore, and down-home girl next door. Her innocence, sweetness, and light are very alluring, much like the persona of tragic songbirds Eva Cassidy and Nancy LaMott. Feel empathy for Gardot, but don't patronize her -- she's the real deal much more that many of her over-hyped peers. "Quiet Fire" is definitely her signature tune, as it speaks volumes of where her soul is at, in a jazz/blues mode, yearning for true love. The title track follows a similar tack, a slow, sweet, sentimental slinky blues that will melt your heart. A finger-snapping "Goodnite" leaves you wanting that night to continue, but also exudes a hope that permeates the entire recording. She might be a bit down on men during the nonplussed "All That I Need Is Love," but her subdued optimism glows cool. "Sweet Memory" might possibly parallel Feist or perhaps KT Tunstall in a rural country mode, while "Gone" is clearly folkish, and the slow "Some Lessons" expresses a contemporary Nashville precept. The laid-back music behind Gardot is basically acoustic, incorporating hip jazz instrumentation, especially the trumpet of Patrick Hughes and occasional organ, Wurlitzer, or Fender Rhodes from Joel Bryant, but with twists including violin, lap steel, and Dobro. The concise nature of this recording and these tunes perfectly reflects the realization that life is precious, every moment counts, and satisfaction is fleeting. Likely to be placed in the Norah Jones/Nellie McKay/Madeleine Peyroux pseudo jazz/pop sweepstakes, Gardot offers something decidedly more authentic and genuine. She's one-upped them all out of the gate.

Michael G. Nastos - All Music Guide



This debut will inevitably draw comparisons to Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux – but don't fall into the trap of believing it. Because behind the sweeping classic melodies and dreamy piano lie the striking lyrics and edgy tone of Melody Garnot – and beyond them, an unbelievable story of courage against the odds. Disabled after a 4X4 knocked her off her bike at 19, Melody only found her voice while receiving music therapy as she recovered. The recordings she made in a wheelchair at her hospital bedside were eventually released in 2005 as Some Lessons – The Bedroom Sessions.

It was an undoubtedly long, painful slog from there to her first full length release Worrisome Heart. She wrote and co-produced the entire album which had an independent US release in 2006. Picked up by the same DJ who discovered Norah Jones, Garnot started gaining acclaim and signed to Universal, with whom the album now gets a deserved full worldwide release.

It's true that tracks like Sweet Memory and Goodnite have similarities to Jones' standards but unsurprisingly this survivor also has an edge. Only in her early twenties, Gardot is still not fully recovered. She walks with a cane and is hypersensitive to light, noise and sound – not ideal for a professional singer.

Her resulting inner steel cuts through best in top tracks Worrisome Heart and Love Me Like A River Does, lifting them above your standard dreamy jazz classics. On the album's the title track, she calls herself a ''worrisome, troubling, baggage free, modern day dame, ain't nobody the same''. She's right there. Meanwhile Love Me Like A River Does stands out for its simple yet devastating lines such as: ''Baby don't rush, you're no waterfall – love me that is all''.

The disc almost sold out on Amazon the day before release and is getting great reviews all over the world. Garnot is lighthearted in the face of adversity, signing off the album with: ''That was fun!'' Fun? It's so much more than that. And you owe it to your ears to discover this gem for yourself.

Sophie Bruce - 2008
BBC Review



Through much of her hourlong show at the Blender Theater at Gramercy on Thursday night, Melody Gardot weighed vulnerability against seductiveness, without really taking sides. “Quiet Fire,” one of her slinkier tunes, summed up the situation well. “I’m burning up,” Ms. Gardot cooed, before issuing a coy invitation, a pledge of surrender and, in the chorus, this petition: “All I want is somebody to love me like I do.” The whisper of vanity in that refrain was only slightly less noticeable than its cry of unfulfilled desire.

Smoldering becomes Ms. Gardot, whose voice carries a soft allure even on brighter fare. At the close of her encore, in a sprint through the Tizol-Ellington-Mills standard “Caravan,” she summoned the composure of a young June Christy. Elsewhere, drawing mainly from her Verve debut album, “Worrisome Heart,” she basked in heartache. Cracking wise from behind her dark glasses, she gave the impression of a film noir savant with equal sympathies for the femme fatale and the ingénue.

Ms. Gardot has come to her chosen aesthetic from an extraordinary place. Four years ago, as a 19-year-old fashion student in Philadelphia, she was involved in a hit-and-run accident, sustaining serious spinal injuries. (She wears the dark glasses because of her hypersensitivity to light, one of the many symptoms that have persisted since that trauma.) Music aided her rehabilitation: unable to play the piano while convalescing, she took up the guitar and made her first EP, “Some Lessons: The Bedroom Sessions.”

The drama of that story has naturally propelled much of Ms. Gardot’s press coverage, and it probably had something to do with her recent slate of festival bookings. But she made no mention of it in the show, opting even to exclude “Some Lessons,” a ballad that reflects poignantly on her experience. The audience was left to make its own inferences when she sang something by Ray Charles, “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I).”

She performed that song and a few others, including the Bill Withers classic “Ain’t No Sunshine,” at center stage, sparsely supported by bass and drums. (A trumpeter and a saxophonist thickened the air, but mostly in passing.) She seemed comfortable in this exposed setting, though the music was noticeably richer when she played acoustic guitar, on a smoky reverie like “Goodnite.” She played one new song — “Baby I’m a Fool,” basically her take on French chanson — as a solo number, to charming effect.

And when she sat at the piano for a honey-drip ballad called “Love Me Like a River Does,” everything clicked. Manipulating her voice with special care, she gave some notes a translucent tone and distressed others with gentle tremors. She sounded sensuous and unguarded, and oddly content in her yearning.

Nate Chinen - Aug. 25, 2008
© 2016 The New York Times



"I would be lucky to find me a man who could love me the way I am," sings Melody Gardot a few songs into her set. She's not indulging in groundless self-pity, but commenting on the life-changing injuries sustained when she was hit by a car near her home in Philadelphia four years ago, aged 19. On stage, she relies on a walking stick, sunglasses and heavy-duty pain relief, but she accessorises with a black cocktail dress, stilettos and a chunk of bling, and is the most glamorous person in the room. The audience are rapt from the moment she arrives - alone, singing the blues ballad No More, My Lord, languidly snapping her fingers in time.

Gardot's area is late-night jazz, and she has the husky, expressive voice necessary to get the best out of these unfussy tunes. Accompanied by drums, trumpet and double bass, she floats through the self-written contents of her debut album, Worrisome Heart, and a couple of comfy standards.

According to her lyrics, Gardot is on the lookout for "a lover undercover" and wants to be loved "like a roaring sea", which invites the reply, "Don't we all?" But her fluid singing and the band's cool-jazz subtlety have their effect: the crowd are completely engrossed. If performing is an effort (she rarely plays two nights in a row), the only hint is in her banter, which is full of sexual innuendo, that seems designed to keep up her spirits. A remarkable artist.

Caroline Sullivan - 24 July 2008
© 2016 Guardian News and Media



JONI MITCHELL and Cassandra Wilson paved the way for Norah Jones, and Jones opened the door for a whole generation of young women who are combining the elastic phrasing and harmonic sophistication of jazz with the personal lyrics of singer-songwriter folk. One of the best of these newcomers is Melody Gardot, a 23-year-old singer-pianist-guitarist from New Jersey whose debut album, "Worrisome Heart," is finally getting national distribution. It has attracted so much attention that Larry Klein, Mitchell's longtime producer, is working with Gardot on her second album.

The title track of her first album showcases her breathy mezzo framed by the tinkling piano and muted trumpet of retro jazz. The lyrics for this slow blues song, however, wonder how she'll ever attract a lover with her troubled mind and worrisome heart -- the kind of introspection associated with folk songwriters. Gardot then shifts gears for the finger-snapping beat, lilting tune, scat solo and battle-of-the-sexes gibes on "All That I Need Is Love," with the biting humor of Nellie McKay.

Melancholy or irreverent, Gardot's vocals fit snugly into the understated jazz arrangements. But what really sells these songs are the juicy melodies. If the chorus hook of her "Sweet Memory" reminds one of Carole King's "Sweet Seasons," that's just a measure of the high standard she meets on all of her originals.

Geoffrey Himes - August 15, 2008
© 2008 The Washington Post



There’s the back story of Melody Gardot, the Philadelphia jazz folkie disabled in a car accident: she uses specialized seating, dark glasses and other distractions to comfort her deep pelvic fractures, photosensitivity and the autonomic nervous system dysfunction that allows her hypersensitivity to noise. Forget that. Really.

Though there’re long, lyrical, even silly allusions to her travails—looking for a man to accept all of her during the title track, the upside-down turn-around that is “Some Lessons”—the true tale of Gardot’s shining quirk is how delightful her trilling vocals and fluid melodies are; how deliciously intertwined within the soft reed sounds and quixotic violin kick and leering trumpet tone that Billie-ish voice is; how prickly her own quiet guitars and piano lines are, too. Gardot writes and plays along with old-timey twangers (“Sweet Memory”) and supple shuffling blues (“Quiet Fire”) that benefit from ye old cool jazz in that she finds tenor sax man/clarinetist Ron Kerber’s horns and clings to their sub-tone breaths. Gardot does the same to Mike Brenner’s lap steel licks on “Gone,” to Diane Monroe’s violin and Matt Cappy’s muted trumpet on “One Day.” She ups the ache and stretches her vowels on “One Day” or languishes through her tremulous stately “Love Me Like a River Does.”

But, though she plays so very well with others, if she was alone on a street corner, hooting to the moon, you’d hear the same subtle drama and dynamics. Forget the story. Desire the singer.

A.D. Amorosi - March 2008
© 1999–2015 JazzTimes



Worrisome Heart is the debut album of jazz singer-songwriter Melody Gardot. It was released independently in 2006 and later re-released on Verve Records in 2007 and 2008. The album contains new recordings of songs previously released on Gardot's first extended play release, Some Lessons: The Bedroom Sessions as well as unreleased tracks.

Speaking of how the album first came to be made, in November 2008 Gardot told noted British jazz/soul writer Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul that: "It was created independently of a record company. It was made privately. So my only intention, or my only goal, was to make a record that at the end of the day I was happy with. And the way that the instrumentation was decided on was based on what I heard in my head, and what I thought would feel the best. So I guess having it released is kinda like having somebody publish your diary in a way!"

The tracks "Wicked Ride", "Some Lessons" and "Goodnite" were re-recorded for this album and are not the versions that appear on the Some Lessons EP. The 2006 independent release has a longer running time of 41:40 as it included the new version of "Wicked Ride", as well as the hidden track "Sorry State", which were omitted when released by Verve Records. The album cover and track listing were changed for a promotional release in 2007 and again for its eventual official release under the label in 2008.

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