Dale Ann Bradley Album: "Old Southern Porches" Pinecastle Records #1087 (1999) Rating: (5 Paws)

Dale Ann Bradley has one of the nicest voices in bluegrass music. Everyone has their own ideas about what is good and what is better, but for me, she has a great voice. Her approach to this music is gentle and warm. Her voice is rich and full and she sings with real understanding and love for the music.

She co-wrote five of the songs on this new CD with Vicki Simmons who does harmony vocal on one of the songs with Dale Ann. Sonny Osborne (who produced the album) said that Dale Ann is "…one of the most gifted singers to have surfaced in years." He went on to say that this is "…perhaps the best release to be on the market this year." I don't think that the fact that he produced this album made him say these nice things about Dale Ann's music. I think he listened to the finished product and realized that it is simply a wonderful album

This is a sensitive and gentle CD of good bluegrass music. Sometimes bluegrass gets to going so fast that you can't linger on any song long enough to enjoy it. This CD is true bluegrass, but you don't get the feeling that Dale Ann was in any hurry when she recorded the music. The songs are up-tempo, slow, tearful, happy, and sad, as all bluegrass tends to be, but every song is done at the right speed and easy on the ears.

When I listened to this new CD I thought this is the kind of music you would like to hear on a front porch some summer evening, drinking a tall, cool lemon aide with some of your family and friends. It occurs to me that when Dale Ann finished this project, she listened to it and said, "Now that's what I was after."…and then went home happy.