The Orchard

I just happened to catch a track from this album while in my local Starbucks and decided to check out the rest. I loved it and it was also my first Amazon MP3 download. It was a great experience and I love the album. Her voice is so pure and soulful and a pleasure! Her songs are full of life and love and lessons...real songs! Buy it! You won't regret it!

Lizz Wright's phenomenal! Her songs cover many genres. I appreciate a singer who can just sing. There are no electronics or gimmicks here. This cd is soothing, relaxing and will be a welcome addition to a music lovers collection. Buy it today!!!

This is another outstanding effort by Lizz Wright. I definitely have two or three favorites (Ike Turner's Idolize You and the track 8) but overall I enjoyed the CD.

"The Orchard" by Lizz Wright is what I would call "deep" music. She sings with passion and soul. I picked up her CD after reading the previous reviews about her music and they are all correct. Thanks for the great reviews

Lizz Wright reprises her collaboration with producer Craig Street for this set of rich, warm, southern-flavoured soul songs. It's said that the songs are inspired by Wright's memories (and picture slides) of earlier times in the southern state of Georgia, which is where she grew up. She has thus created a very personal musical statement here. Apart from her voice - that resonating gospel-trained contralto - it's her no-frills, totally natural approach to her music that wins me over every time. It's all very organic, with lots of acoustic guitar and other live instruments.

My overall favourite tune on here is the thumping Ike Turner song "I Idolize You" with its great blues guitar riff but others, like "Coming Home", "Another Angel", the mesmerising "Speak Your Heart" with its haunting backing vocal by Marc Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius) and the incredibly beautiful and heartfelt "Song For Mia" are not far behind. The bonus track "Strange", written by Fred Burch & Mel Tillis, is a killer.

And check this out for a sample of the lyrics: "I know what you wanna say/ I see the words behind your eyes," Wright sings on the opening of "Speak Your Heart" and the opening line of "Strange" goes: "Strange how you stopped loving me, how you stopped needing me, when she came along/ Oh, how strange."

Or how about the chorus of "Hey Mann"?: "Hey Mann, what you doin' here?/ I don't remember lettin' you in/ Hey Mann, how d'you get in here?/ You're in my heart without consent."

I can only speak for myself of course but these are the kinds of lyrics that take me places. This is what soul music is all about.

But I like all the songs on here, really. Established fans - if they're anything like me - will fall in love with this on first listen but I do wonder if there's anything on here that might grab new fans and draw them in. Personally I'd recommend they go try out Salt and Dreaming Wide Awake first and then come get this if they like both of them, as I think they both had more songs that had what one might call 'instant appeal'.

Not that I'm suggesting this is a lesser album than her first two. Wright co-wrote most of the songs and I think she's done a good job. Bottom line: if you're looking for a genuine female soul singer who sings songs of love but keeps it clean and well above the waistline, it doesn't get any better than Lizz Wright.