Cinderella's Happy Ending - Classic Fairy Tale Storybook for Kids | Perfect for Bedtime Reading, Gifts & Children's Book Collections

Morgan Bracy - End of CinderellaI discovered this Nashville-based singer/songwriter when I heard the song "Silence", from this CD, on a "Pop" music Radio Sampler. I liked the hooks (though it was more Country than Pop) and wanted to hear the whole album. In fact, I also sought out Bracy's first album ("Dirty Laundry" released in 2007) at the same time. You can hear her growth as a songwriter in the four years between the albums. For the former, she co-wrote all but one song (and that was not her composition). There were upbeat songs and a few slow ones but all fit the mostly-acoustic guitar mode of singer/songwriters who regularly play the Bluebird Café and other small Nashville music venues. While a bass and drum appear on some tracks, it's mostly guitar-backed productions. (While she composes most of the songs on both CDs, she only provides vocals on her records.). That CD is pleasant, but nothing out of the ordinary.Fast forward four years to this album which is upbeat and "new country" all the way. The track that grabbed me from the sampler, and even more the previous track - "She Believes" - are "country radio ready". There are a few others as well. All are Bracy-penned songs (not co-writes like the earlier album) except for one cover song: Randy Newman's "When She Loved Me" (which might work better had she changed the gender in the lyric). This is also a "concept" album with all the songs relating to the fairy tale character in the album's title. And it flows nicely, although I would have liked to have heard a slow song included. There really aren't any.The press release says that Producer John Merchant decided to redo the original session as "less polished and slick". Well, to my ears the production and instrumentation is almost too polished and slick now. While the acoustic guitar was prominent on the 2007 album , this one sounds heavily electrified. This, of course, is what country radio wants to hear and play, but I find it hard to believe that any of these performances would make it at the Bluebird Acoustic Music Café. (I'm not complaining, really. I'd just like to hear the "acoustic" versions of these songs.)Back to Bracy's lyrics and the "hooks" that grabbed me on the sampler. There are at least three tracks here that you'll find yourself wanting to join in on by the second time you hear it (maybe, even the first).So check out a few samples - I'll suggest "She Believes", "Silence" and "Real Life Fairytale" (which starts off with a simple ukulele solo but builds pretty quickly) and see if you don't get "hooked" too.It'll be interesting to see the direction Bracy's music takes for her next project.Steve Ramm"Anything Phonographic"