Kathie Baillie is an honest country singer because she has lived what she is singing about. Whether her first solo CD, Love’s Funny That Way, goes down as traditional, pop, or even jazz; it still is country. This collection of cover songs and originals are about love in all of its forms – romantic, maternal, undependable, and even love of the Lord – sorry, no bad boys in all ten tracks, 41 minutes and 3 seconds!
Michael Bonagura, Baillie’s husband of 25 years, is the producer. He also plays a powerful electric guitar in the title song in the opening number equally matching his wife’s assertive vocals. Nuances – you know, those stretched-out words – add a whole lot of feeling.
The opening sound may be pop, but just around the corner of the musical journey of Baillie’s life is traditional country with acoustic and fiddle and…Vince Gill. Yes, good friends, label mates (RCA), even fans of one another, their voices are great together singing Gill’s ‘Never Knew Lonely.’ Horns and woodwinds with a little piano give a jazzy feel to a song Kathie and Michael wrote for their daughter called ‘One Thing.’ Eighteen year-old Alyssa’s credits on this album are singer/songwriter/piano/guitar. She joins her mother and Paulette Carlson on a nostalgic side trip in Carlson’s ‘Old Glass Case.’ Banjo, mandolin and dulcimer add warmth to this lovely piece with a story behind it.
“Lyssie gave me a plate she signed one year for Mother’s Day,” recalls Baillie. “After hearing Paulette’s new CD with this song on it, I knew the three of us had to sing it for my CD. I have that glass case and that plate!” ‘All Fall Down,’ written by newcomer Tony Kerr, rocks. “We added the ‘choir’ at the end, long after the song was recorded,” says Michael, “[It’s] one of the advantages of having a home studio as opposed to buying studio time.”
It may not be the choir, but it is inspiring. ‘Come to Me’ represents Baillie’s faith connection. She and Alyssa wrote the lyrics for a cousin in a troubled marriage. It begins with an instrumental prelude – organ, wah guitar and piano. All you have to do is raise your arms high above your head and “just sing Hallelujah.”
No stranger to success, as lead singer of Baillie and the Boys, the trio released six albums to score a total of ten Top 10 country hits. “It’s a strange musical world right now,” she says, “We are just who we are, not trying to fit into anything Nashville.” She adds, “I think I have something to give.”
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