Joshua Kadison

Pianist Joshua Kadison's debut is chock full of odes to finding romance, longing for romance and losing romance. Propelled mostly by the enormously popular adult contemporary hit Jessie, about the searching title heroine and the hopeful, needing narrator who gets sucked into her longing, he paints vivid portrayals of troubled and hopeful dreamers. With lyrics like "Jessie, paint your pictures/'bout how it's gonna be/by now I should know better/your dreams are never free," Kadison taps into the wanderer in all of us. His strength is much like that of the best country music songwriters: Each track brings to life and tells a story about unique characters, whether it's Lady Jane in the title song, Rachel in Picture Postcards from L.A. or Jessie making a recurrent visit in Georgia Rain. With Kadison being an unabashed romantic, none of these songs rock out or even come close to being edgy, but that works to their advantage because he also steers far from the middle of the road with his strong songwriting skills, yearning lyrics, pretty melodies and simple production. The best cut is Painted Desert Serenade, a swooningly romantic song about a senior citizen trying to convince a fellow senior that it's not too late to find love. His follow-up, 1995's Delilah Blue, had no hit singles and disappeared soon off the charts. ~ Bryan Buss, All Music Guide