Perla Batalla - Bird on the Wire: The Songs of Leonard Cohen

Music Review By Glen Creason I consider Maestro Cohen to be one of the greatest songwriters ever.I waited to comment until I had listened to the CD a few times but once I started I could hardly get stopped. I'll start by saying I just can't say how moved I was hearing two particular songs that I don't really know from Leonard Cohen. I am a might dramatic but when I hear 'Coming Back to You' my eyes fill with tears. What an incredible poem and what a perfect performance!!! I just absolutely love hearing Perla's folk side come out and the reverence for the words and crisp diction take this one to another realm. It is so sad and so wise. Secondly, 'Ballad of Asbent Mare' which I am ashamed to admit I had NEVER heard before. What I mean is that I might have listened to it but never heard the depth and sweet ache in the heart it brings. Is there a better male singer on planet earth than David Hidalgo? To me this song is a masterpiece. The combination of Perla and David is too much, I think Perla should record an entire album of such. To think that a song about a cowboy could move me like a poem by W.B. Yeats! 'If It Be Your Will' is a hymn, an uplifting spiritual experience in a time where spirituality has been made counterfeit. Dance Me to the End of Love is amazing on two levels. Bill Gable took exactly the right road there, disappearing and reappearing with the lyrics as Perla's waxed and waned. Every song is wonderful, poetic, rich in emotion and Perla's singing has never been better. Pianist Karen Hammack just absolutely kills on her role in this CD. She was essential to the classy, clean sound of this work. I also enjoyed the banjo used several places. What can you say about 'Bird on a Wire' except that it is undoubtedly one of the greatest love songs ever written. Perla does it justice. Lastly, I just can't get past the opening 'Oh Susanna' without blubbering. Eva's voice is so mature now, so pure it kind of scares me. Congratulations to Perla on a fine piece of work, of art. On.

1) If It Be Your Will
2) Seems So Long Ago Nancy
3) Coming Back to You
4) Dance Me to the End of Love
5) So Long Marianne
6) Came So Far for Beauty
7) Ballad of the Absent Mare
8) Famous Blue Raincoat
9) Bird on the Wire
10) Suzanne