Driving to Blue Café

While one of our hosts in Poland were driving us around Olsztyn, she had a CD playing in the car that was pleasant. The tunes were toe tapping and never jarring. Although the lyrics were in english, I could detect a distinct accent at times.

I asked our host about the CD and she said that it was a Polish group called Blue Café. This is from their newest CD Ovosho. The lead singer has an incredible controlled smoky voice not unlike Diana Krall or Norah Jones. She also seems to have quite an incredible range. Most of the songs on this album are in english, with a few Polish songs thrown in. On an interesting note, this band's Love Song served as Poland's entry to the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.

Frustratingly, this CD seems to be available on Amazon for about the same amount as I paid for it in Poland.

Again, I really did have a hard time picking a couple of songs to feature here. Given a choice, I would highlight about 6-8 songs here which all highlight different aspects of the group's talent. However, I'll stick to the catchiest melodies. The lyrics are not particularly sophisticated or subtle, but then again, let's not forget that groups like Abba took lyrics like "Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight, Take me through the darkness to the break of the day" all the way to platinum status mutliple times over!

Let's see how this is received. If there is enough demand, I may feature a couple more songs from this album later.

1. Blue Café - Barok (2.61 MB; 128kbps MP3)

2. Blue Café - Baby, Baby (3.57 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Around the World and Back Again

The source of my selections today is as roundabout as the artiste's travels.

My niece in Trieste, Italy sent me a couple of MP3s of an artist she likes called Lhasa de Sela and thought I may like it enough for my blog. I listened to the songs first and was intrigued enough by the beautiful smoky voice to want to find out more about the artist. While the music is interesting, but not exactly what I would regularly listen to, the story of Lhasa is fascinating.

According to the brief Wikipedia entry, Lhasa is " of Mexican and Jewish -Lebanese-American descent. born in NY, grew up in US and Mexico, started singing at a Greek restaurant, moved to Montreal, released an album, then moved to France. Phew! Of course, she sings in English, French, and Spanish.

You can find Lhasa's discography on Amazon here. Both these songs are from her debut album La Llorona which is available on Amazon here. Make sure you check out her web site too.

1. Lhasa de Sela - De Cara A La Pared (4 MB; 128 kbps MP3)
2. Lhasa de Sela - El Desierto (3.66 MB; 128kbps MP3)