Does Whitney Still Have It?

OK...Whitney's back! We've seen the Oprah Interview and we may have heard a couple of the cuts from her new recording, "I Look to You." The reviews are in and they're mixed.

Some say that she's lost the "national treasure" -- the voice of her youth -- due to her age, her addictions, or both. Others are simply die-hard Whitney fans and would love her if she croaked like a frog. Let me voice my never-to-be-humble opinion, and then I'd like to hear from YOU.

None of us who remember songs like "Savin' All My Love," and "I Will Always Love You," or "The Greatest Love of All" will ever forget THAT VOICE. Nor will we forget the hypnotic beauty of the young Whitney in "The Bodyguard," "The Preacher's Wife," and "Waiting to Exhale." Whitney Houston was simply mesmerizing!

But, in all those early years, I have to say that for me personally, I was never a hardcore Whitney fan. Oh, sure I got a chill when she hit that amazing high note in the 1991 Superbowl National Anthem. But down inside I wondered if these Whitney Houston Moments were just well-plannned arrangements and productions designed to showcase her amazing pipes and keep her the Superstar she had become. For me, the focus was always on Whitney. My thoughts were, "Wow! She's something else! What a voice and what a beauty!" But somehow she never really "connected" with me. I was never brought to tears thinking..."Yes, that's me! That's REAL."

Then Life happened. And now Whitney's back. Her voice is definitely different. Lower, weathered, a bit gritty even. But now Whitney has a MESSAGE! Now she truly IS "Every Woman." She's joined the Fellowship of the Broken and has come back stronger than ever. As I watched her sing the new Diane Warren song, "I Didn't Know My Own Strength," on the Oprah show this past week, she definitely CONNECTED with me. She was not "performing." She was "communicating" because this was her story. Her eyes, her hands, her face, her voice, and yes, her spirit -- all came together in an honesty that brought me to tears.

I'm no prophet, but I predict that if Whitney keeps doing what she's doing now, her best and most important work is yet to come. I'd rather hear and feel an honest MESSAGE than to listen to the vibration of a perfect set of vocal cords. Think about Joe Cocker singing, "You Are So Beautiful." Great voice? Heck no! But talk about communication! And message? Oh yes..."You Are So Beautiful" is and always will be Every Man's song to the woman he loves. And Every Woman loves that voice that sounds so raw, so authentic -- even when it cracks a bit with emotion at the end.

That's the kind of genuine passion that Whitney conveys now. She's been humbled by Life. She's walked out to the brink of despiar, but, thank God, she's come back from the edge and is still with us. Her past career may be over, but I believe her greatest impact has just begun.

What do you think?

Why We Do What We Do...

We music types are a strange and exotic lot! Although the "music biz" is probably one of the most illogical and financially unrewarding careers anyone could ever enter, we somehow keep at it despite the fact that the moniker, "starving artist," is even more literal these days. Just this week a fellow songwriter excitedly called to tell me he had received several hundred plays in Europe through one of the Internet radio streams...and had earned a total of $2.80 in downloads from his site. WOW!

Which brings us to the question, "Why do we keep doing this thing called music anyway?" Especially now when the entire industry has collapsed and no one knows what to do about it or where any of us will be when the dust settles.

I don't know about you, but over the years I have discovered that Music (with a capital M) is so much bigger than the "music (small m) business." Music is as much a part of our humanity as the Human Genome. It's the language that must express itself, whether in a slightly off-pitch 3-year-old version of "Twinkle Twinkle" or in a stunning symphonic arrangement that endures for centuries. And somehow, we all understand that language at a level that goes far deeper than the human mind can conceive.

Many Parkinson's patients, for instance, who find it hard to walk at all...can dance without a stumble when music plays. And the American Music Therapy Association states:
Music is a very basic human response, spanning all degrees of
ability/disability...The malleability of music makes it a medium
that can be adapted to meet the needs of each individual

And then we move to politics and world powers. Music (capital M) can move nations. When the New York Philharmonic Orchestra recently traveled to North Korea, the language of Music broke through the levees of hatred and prejudice and flooded the performance hall with a harmony that went far beyond the notes on the score.

Music is soul-to-soul connection unlike any other form of communication. When something you have written or played or sung touches the heart of someone else -- whether it's a lullaby that soothes a crying toddler, or a hit song that "makes the whole world sing" -- the connection IS the motivation. We who have a song in our hearts MUST express it or explode. I think that's why we do what we do? What do you think???

Let me hear from you....