"What's up" with Dionne

[ron hertel]

Does anyone know what's going on in the "Warwick Camp"? ...... Fan Club appears to be defunct (no posts for months and the e-mail address no longer exists) . The current website (dionnewarwick.us) is not up to date. A countdown of days until the release of her "new album" ... FEELS SO GOOD keeps changing (originally set for May 6th - now can be preordered next week? - Amazon claims it's "temporarily out of stock"). ........ Participants (duet partners) on the new project identified on the website include: Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Ne-Yo, Ziggy Marley, Cee Lo Green and Billy Ray Cyrus (she recorded a single with him and performed it on "The Talk" earlier this year).Her original Facebook page is gone and has been replaced with a new one with little updated information. .... Also heard she was recording with Earth, Wind & Fire as well as Melissa Manchester. ........ Just Curious! ....... Hope everything is OK!

[face]

I've been wondering the same thing! It's like she's slowly backing into retirement without saying goodbye!

[JohnBrennan]

10 songs from the album can be heard in full at https://www.presskit.to/dionnewarwick#/media

A couple of interesting tracks here, some experimentation from Dionne.

Duplication of 3 songs from "My Friends and Me" is disappointing,

"A House is Not a Home" featuring Ne-Yo is the first single to be released next week, apparently.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Well, overall, Dionne seems to be in better vocal shape than I`ve heard her in a while. Yet, as with all these duet projects (inevitably re-makes) including those of Jimmy Webb and friends, my ultimate response is: For godssake, WHY??
Nothing here is an improvement on the original and, except for completists, I can`t imagine who the audience for these things might be.
Is the best we can say is that it`s not an embarrassment?

[BachtoBacharach]

Well, I have listened to these tracks and what a yawn is all I can say. Nothing here is of much interest. Dionne has once again mined her back catalog for the umpteenth time with nothing compelling (for the most part) to add to the originals. The production of some of these tunes is atrocious (for that I guess we can thank Damon Elliott) but did anyone expect anything any different. The only interesting things on this turkey are the non-remakes. At least "Now" had top notch production values and a scant handful of some fairly compelling tracks but I heard nothing here that would propel me to buy any of this dreck. Damon and Dionne once again try to foist this off to, as Blair says, the "completists" since I can't imagine who would be remotely interested in more of the same old same old. This project is the real "Plastic City"...not much substance and a lot of synthesized crap.

[maestrofan]

Mr. Bacharach's reaction to the 7 remakes of his 7 songs on this project is likely best summed up in the New Seekers recording of LOOK WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO MY SONG MA. ... Were the reported contributions by Ms. Keys and Mr. Wonder too good for inclusion on the CD? HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. BACHARACH

[BachtoBacharach]

All I can think back to is Ron Isley's Here I Am which was superb! Dionne had been talking since around 1994 about working with Bacharach again to record some of the Bacharach gems she had never recorded. She wanted to record Mexican Divorce and mentioned that frequently along with several others but apparently they could never get together. Alas, Dionne's voice is too shot to do justice to any Bacharach composition these days and her time to do that dream project she always talked about passed about 12 years ago. Bacharach has basically washed his hands of Dionne as far as ever producing her again. What a project Burt and Dionne could have done say 15 years ago with Mexican Divorce and several others a la Isley's Here I Am. Dionne has once again sold out Bacharach, herself and her fans with this remake drivel and Bacharach is wisely staying as far away from this stinker as he possibly can. I am sure Bacharach feels that Dionne has not only desecrated his tunes but also her recording legacy. Feels So Good is the fifth remake album since 1998 by my count and none with the exception of Now generated much critical or commercial interest...My Friends and Me remains to me possibly the most embarrassing thing she ever recorded other than that horrid cover of Dylan's Blowing in the Wind from the 1966 album Here Where There Is Love...which sounded like something Diana Ross and the Supremes would toss off at a nightclub date at the Copa.

Of course as well, Damon Elliott is, in my opinion, a shameless self-promoter and often many of the big names he purports to being involved in new projects (such as Feels So Good????) with his mom never surface. Remember the huge benefit at the Fountainbleau in Miami Damon Elliott touted for months with the involvement of Stevie Wonder and a galaxy of stars to benefit Hurricane Sandy victims and attracted only Natalie Cole and Wilmer Valderrama (who????)? Stevie Wonder DID appear at her birthday party to sing Happy Birthday to her but that was a private party and was not the benefit concert which Wonder stayed away from. Allegedly, the Fountainbleau donated the costs of the benefit based upon Elliott's assurances that BIG NAMES were coming to celebrate his mom's birthday and to benefit Sandy. The Fountainbleau has never disclosed how much that cost them nor has any public disclosure been made about how much money the benefit raised for the Sandy victims. I am just sickened by the seeming "sleaze factor" surrounding Damon Elliott of seeming to cash in on anything to promote himself...he has cheapened his mother's great legacy, IMHO. What are you thinking Dionne?

[turnupthemusic]

I think Dionne's internet presence has been outsourced to some external company, probably when she got the new website a few months back and they oddly closed her Facebook page and opened a new one. The old pages (both website and social media) had a stream of archive pictures being posted every week and at least some updates, since the new stuff has started, it's all come to a bit of a stop. I don't think Dionne is retiring properly just yet, I just think her internet presence is poor.

As for this new album - all I have to say is My Friends and Me 2. Shoddy production values and dull as dishwater songs with no energy or passion to them whatsoever, honestly a real shame.

On a more positive note, Dionne looked good, seemed in decent voice and had a bit of fun at the International Jazz Day concert a couple of weeks back - here's a bit of it, click the link below and she sings until 2:50.28. If only her album had some of the fun and energy from this concert...

[face]

My Friends and Me 2 is correct. I didn't have high hopes once I heard that Damon was at the helm, but I guess part of me thought there was still a chance that Dionne would knock it out of the park like she did with Now. Alas, this one is only a notch above My Friends and Me, which I still maintain is the worst album of Dionne's career. Dionne's current voice is a very delicate instrument, and I think that it has to be recorded and engineered very carefully to bring out its warmth and sweetness. The kind of modern production values and synth treatments that Damon uses only emphasize how old her voice sounds; the contrast doesn't work. She sounds harsh and too raw. She sounds best in gentle, acoustic settings that match her weathered voice. I don't know what Phil Ramone did on the last CD, or what the producer of Only Trust Your Heart did, or what the producer of her Christmas album did, but Damon would be wise to study their techniques before their next outing, if there is one. Let's hope there isn't.

However, Damon is only a part of the problem. Dionne herself sounds lazy here, and there is simply no excuse for a musician of her caliber singing ever-so-slightly-flat all over the place and not paying close attention to her lines and phrasing like she used to. I'm sure she could have put a little more gusto into some of those songs with the proper rest and preparation. She does it live, even if it is less and less often nowadays. These songs don't inspire her anymore (how could they? she's been singing them non-stop for 50 years!), and it shows. The two country songs are pleasant enough (and an interesting musical setting for her), but even then her singing was not what it should have been. Even considering her age and other issues, I think she can do better. And if she truly can't, then she needs to stop documenting her decline and bow out gracefully.

[BachtoBacharach]

Dionne Warwick has a Centric program presently airing called "Being Dionne Warwick"...nice fluff piece but in the interview portion Dionne says she is disappearing for a while but coming back later with some new and exciting things. It's very cryptic and mysterious, it appears (LOL!). I truly think she is trying to bow out as she has cut her personal appearances dramatically in recent months and has relatively few scheduled for the future. Her voice sounds better because she is resting it more. She is committed to her sons and seem these days to be doing things to promote them more than to promote herself. Damon Elliott has ridden his mom's good name into the ground and perhaps she has wised up to that. Son David Elliott is truly talented and a class act and he has good pipes to boot but it seems even he keeps a distance from the sleaze factor of his wheeler-dealer brother Damon although he does have a duet out with mom on the Feels So Good project. Dionne has propped up Damon for years though. David is also a good song-writer but I haven't quite figured out what Damon is talented at except using his mom's fame to his advantage. It opened some acting and producing doors at the beginning of his career but that's petered out. He's kinda like the Paris Hilton/Nicole Richie of the Warwick-Elliott family....sorta famous for no good reason!!

Here's the Centric piece: http://www.centrictv.com/shows/being/ep ... rwick.html

[face]

Speaking of David Elliott, he has some new recordings in the country-rock genre that sound fantastic. Here's an example: He definitely has the Drinkard/Warrick pipes, and he has always presented himself as a class act across the board.

[blueonblue]

Fantastic singer and song !
Thanks for posting.

"blue"

[Downtown]

Not sure that I can agree with much of the negativism. There are some real inspired pairings here and some tracks actually could get airplay. Particularly the fantastic combination with the great CeeLo Green on "Feels So Good" is terrific......If they handle that one right it actually could be a real club-hit, something you would not expect from a 73 year old.

And if I remember correctly before the "Now" album came out and there were only tinny sounding bits on SOUNDCLOUND - the feedback here was pretty much the same: "Cheap-sounding Damon Elliot produced My Friends And Me outtakes". The consensus here was that it was all a charade and Phil Ramone had in reality nothing to do with it ...And when the actual album came it it was really quiet good and she got a Grammy nomination out of it.

[BachtoBacharach]

I don't recall nearly as much negativity about Now as Feels So Good. One or two good tracks does not an album make these days. The big criticism of Now was the return to the remakes but in the hands of Phil Ramone, it was good and the choice of returning to some lesser known Dionne Warwick hits was a wise one. But once again, we have a remake album. No one gets this. Why not an album with new tunes and no remakes? I believe Damon Elliott had a few tracks left over from My Friends and Me and padded those out with a handful of tunes Dionne hadn't recorded. With Phil Ramone at the helm of Now, you could count on quality...he wasn't going to accept a half-a$$ effort from Dionne and put his name on it. Damon Elliott? Not so much. He put out My Friends and Me and what a total embarrassment that was...there is a reason why all those tunes which were recorded for My Friends and Me II never saw the light of day but that didn't stop Elliott from recycling them for this project, it appears. Sad. Dionne can do better and deserves better. She's always been so carefully produced and that doesn't quite compute with Damon Elliott. His mom is not a rap star and the novelty of pairing elegant Dionne with rappers and gangstas wore off with that remake of What the World Needs Now in 1998. Dionne should run as fast as she can when Elliott comes at her with ANOTHER remake album.

[Downtown]

As I stated before the concept of "album" is coming to an end anyway. But there are two or three tracks here that have the marketing-potential that her last offerings had not.

And among the original material the CeeLo Green song - and it sounds like he wrote it especially for Dionne - is great and fun and personal. If she rests her pipes - like she seems to be doing - and if the two promote the song together globally she could have a legitimate international hit. Something she hasn't had since TWFAF