Description
Everyone’s Beautiful is the first major label album by the American acoustic pop/rock combo Waterdeep (fronted by husband and wife Don & Lori Chaffer), released on Squint Entertainment in 1999. The album was recorded and mixed by Niko Bolas at Woodland Studios in Nashville, Tennessee; with Darrell Brown and Dennis Matkosky producing for the MPower Group, together with band member Don Chaffer (except track 4 produced by label head Steve Taylor and Chaffer). Featuring a cover of “Whenever God Shines His Light”, a song written by Van Morrison and originally recorded on his 1989-album, Avalon Sunset. All other songs written by Don and/or Lori Chaffer.
Featuring Don and Lori Chaffer on vocals as well as acoustic and electric guitars (with Don also providing harmonica), Christena Graves on acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, organ, and background vocals, Kenny Carter on bass and background vocals, and Brandon Graves on drums and percussion.
They’ve released eight independent projects, some of which have featured on my Independents’ Day programme on Cross Rhythms, but now comes their first worldwide release – and what a stonker! I saw this band play live in Nashville early last year and since then I’ve been salivating with expectancy for this release. It’s been worth the wait! This is such a brilliant album! The nucleus of the band is two married couples with Don and Lori Chaffer playing guitar and sharing lead vocals whilst Brandon and Christina Graves play drums and keyboards and Kenny Carter plays bass. That’s the personnel but what do they sound like? Rootsy rock’n’roll with piles of commitment and loads of talent. The songwriting isn’t afraid to deal with brokenness, difficulty and the realities of life whilst at the same time breathing plenty of hope. «Wicked Web», «He Will Come» and «Confessions Of A Broken Down Man» are the best illustrations of the louder side of this album where the band step into edgy territory. At the other extreme, «Everyone’s Beautiful», «Psalm 131» and «Go Find John» open up a delicate side to the band’s writing and performing whilst maintaining an overall quirkiness which adds to the band’s strong sense of cool! One song «Sweet River Roll» has the capacity to make me cry every time I hear it because of its mood and lyrical content! Have to confess I am deeply emotionally involved with this album but so will you be when you hear it! If you like real instruments, real vibe and plenty of edge, file it in the same territory as Maria McKee, VOL and perhaps Sixpence. Waterdeep are an incredible band and this is an incredible album. The best thing I’ve heard in the last couple of months! [Mike Rimmer, Cross Rhythms, February 2000]
Somewhere in Nashville, I imagine, there is a big radar dish, connected to green screens in the offices of record company A&R suits (the folks that “discover” artists). Anything that flies too close to the ground to be picked up by that radar can’t be too important, right?
To be fair, many executives have been doing a much better job lately of tracking grassroots artists that are “off the scope.” Having tallied sales of 40,000-plus units of its independent projects, Waterdeep Is suddenly a radar “blip” to be contended with. (Can you say Caedmon’s Call?)
Don Chaffer launched Waterdeep four years ago, taking the storyteller traditions of folk music and adding an intense rock attitude. Everyone’s Beautiful is the best studio mixture to date of the group’s instrumental skills and mature songwriting craft.
The band’s last studio album, the independently released Sink or Swim (1997), was exceptional by any standards. As good as that disc was, Everyone’s Beautiful is exponentially better. This album heralds the first studio efforts of bassist Kenny Carter and keyboardist Christena Graves, wife of drummer Brandon Graves. Those three form a rhythm section that’s consistently inventive and elastic, as though it might float away from its moorings at any moment. Lori Chaffer comes into her own as both a writer and vocalist. Her voice sometimes recalls the grit of Sheryl Crow, sometimes the wispiness of Saran McLachlan or Sarah Masen, often in the same song. Don’s vocals are stronger and less mannered than on previous records, and his guitar playing is both tasty and reckless in spots. «Confessions of a Broken Down Man» in particular sports some nasty tones and will likely evolve into a live jam favorite.
With unvarnished lyrical honesty, acknowledging one’s brokenness before God and seeing that as the pathway to glory rather than destruction is the album’s central theme. These aren’t simply “woe is me” portraits of down and out characters; they’re empathetic recognition of the moments of suffering and loss that invade all our lives, and our human tendency to let those setbacks overwhelm us. Through its celebratory music and compassionate lyrics, Waterdeep reminds us that redemption and release are only a prayer away. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, October 1999]
> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/everyones-beautiful/1165984471)
CD tracklist:
01. He Will Come – 4:00
02. Sweet River Roll – 4:40
03. Wicked Web – 4:44
04. Whenever God Shines His Light – 3:40
05. I’m Still Here – 4:32
06. Hush – 5:10
07. Stranger In This Land – 3:35
08. Everyone’s Beautiful – 5:17
09. Go Find John – 3:34
10. Confessions Of A Broken Down Man – 5:03
11. Walls & Tall Shadows – 3:15
12. Psalm 131 – 5:16
13. Unknown – 1:29
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Squint Entertainment.
A full-page advertisement for Waterdeep’s Everyone’s Beautiful was featured on the back cover of the October 1999 issue of CCM Magazine.
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