Search - Nana Mouskouri :: Oh Happy Day

Nana shows her breadth

G. Slusher | Eugene, Oregon | 04/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Gospel" is very different from Nana's other albums. Her choice of music is excellent. Like Elvis and Little Richard, Nana pays homage to gospel, not only for itself, but as the root of both jazz and rock 'n' roll. (Check "I Got Shoes" and Didn't It Rain") Nana proves that she can run the full gamut: the quiet, bluesy "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen;" the folk-gospel "All My Trials;" the soul-wrenching "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child;" the joyous "Oh Happy Day" and the toe-tapping "Rock My Soul." She does them all better than well. Another reviewer called her the "white Mahalia Jackson." Nana is very, very good, but no one today can match Mahalia; perhaps no one ever will.



A special note about "Amazing Grace." This simple hymn is one of the most-often recorded songs (for good reason). It's often badly overdone, with soaring orchestras and/or huge choirs or the wail of bagpipes, or it is so bland (e.g., Lawrence Welk's or Pat Boone's versions) that it loses everything and becomes ho-hum. The best versions I've heard are by outstanding women singers-- Judy Collins's bell-like clarity; Charlotte Church's virtuoso performance--all the more astonishing because she was only 12; Joan Baez's unique "duet" with her audience; and the incomparable Mahalia (sort of the other end of the spectrum from Charlotte Church), who put in about 8 times as many notes. Nana goes right up there with them. Her rendition is simple, sweet, yet powerful, with almost as much "soul" as Mahalia. It's enough to bring tears to the eyes of even the staunchest non-believer--I should know.





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