{"id":24998,"date":"2023-03-25T05:30:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T09:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24998"},"modified":"2023-03-27T11:04:07","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:04:07","slug":"album-review-peggy-lee-norma-deloris-egstrom-from-jamestown-north-dakota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/25\/album-review-peggy-lee-norma-deloris-egstrom-from-jamestown-north-dakota\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Peggy Lee &#8212; Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown North Dakota"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24999\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/peggy_lee_norma.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/peggy_lee_norma.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/peggy_lee_norma-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/peggy_lee_norma-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>If you were a rock fan in 1972, chances are good that you had no use for so-called \u201ceasy listening\u201d music. That was the stuff your parents and their uncool friends listened to. Of course a half-century later, there\u2019s an equally good chance that your tastes have expanded, and that you now appreciate \u2013 if grudgingly &#8212; the artistry that could be contained and expressed within that format.<\/p>\n<p>Exhibit A is a 1972 release from Peggy Lee. With the unwieldy title <i>Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown North Dakota<\/i>, the eclectic collection of songs explores a variety of textures, all with Lee\u2019s superb and effortlessly expressive voice at the center. The album\u2019s single, \u201cLove Song\u201d is a wonderful slice of adult pop. \u201cRazor (Love Me as I Am) is a modern-day follow-up to \u201cFever,\u201d with a sultry and subtle swing and swagger. The big and brassy horns are tasty indeed.<\/p>\n<p>Wonderfully tasteful arrangement abound; \u201cWhen I Found You\u201d has a Carole King vibe. Leon Russell\u2019s \u201cA Song for You\u201d features sweeping strings and a soaring Lee vocal. A deeply melancholy \u201cIt Takes Too Long to Learn to Live Alone\u201d is confessional adult pop of the first order.<\/p>\n<p>Many artists have cut Delaney and Bonnie\u2019s \u201cSuperstar.\u201d The Carpenters\u2019 hit recording is the most well-known. And while Lee\u2019s recording isn\u2019t radically different from that version, she slips into the song with aplomb. Far better, though, is a saloon song, \u201cJust for a Thrill.\u201d Buttery vibes, tinkling piano and a smoky, late-night vocal from Lee make it one the record\u2019s best cuts.<\/p>\n<p>And the arrangement on \u201cSomeone Who Cares\u201d is an exemplar of the easy listening genre; it\u2019s full of nuance and subtlety <i>and<\/i> power, all applied expertly. The gentle acoustic guitar picking that lies at the foundation of \u201cThe More I See You\u201d is delightful. The album-proper ends with a classic, Sammy Fain\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ll Be Seeing You.\u201d The strings surge but never overwhelm Peggy Lee\u2019s sweet vocals.<\/p>\n<p>(This reissue features a half-dozen alternate takes. They\u2019re all interesting but none are as good as the official versions.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you were a rock fan in 1972, chances are good that you had no use for so-called \u201ceasy listening\u201d music. That was the stuff your parents and their uncool [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,51,64,65],"tags":[4507],"class_list":["post-24998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz","category-pop","category-reissue","category-review","tag-peggy-lee","cat-42-id","cat-51-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24998"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25065,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24998\/revisions\/25065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}