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Traci
Kennedy - How Many Hearts
by Chuck Dauphin
 Canada has given us very popular artists over the course of
time. Hank Snow…Anne Murray…Shania Twain….just to name a few.
Hoping to add her name to that list is St. Thomas, Ontario-born
Traci Kennedy. You can hear the influence of the afore-mentioned
Twain all over this project, as Kennedy tends to gravitate
toward material that has a bouncy, pop-flavored feel like the
best of Twain’s work.
Take the opening cut, for instance. “Kiss Me Now” shimmers when
you put it on the CD player, as does the title cut. There’s some
fun, up-tempo stuff all throughout the album, and she especially
scores with “Girls Night Out,” which features some churning
guitar work from Porter Howell, who also helped to pen the title
cut. Also showing up several times as a writer is Paul
Jefferson, who also produced the disc. His touch can be found on
seven of the disc’s ten cuts. The best of those include the
ironic “I’d Rather Be,” and the tropical-ish “In Your
Sunglasses.”
Vocally, while Kennedy is a bit thin at times, she does inject a
playful sense all throughout the disc, which serves her well on
cuts like “Second Hand Love,” where she again shows a little bit
of sass, a la Shania. The places where she shines the brightest
as a vocalist are on “I’m Still Kissing You,” on which she
handles the wistful vocals in a quite effective manner, as well
as Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s “Room With A View,” on which she turns
in a very evocative performance.
Is Traci Kennedy the next big artist from north of the border?
It’s hard to tell. She has the looks, as well as the charisma.
She sounds like she is truly enjoying what she is doing. I think
that there is enough here on this disc to give her another shot
at it. At times, the album does sound a little dated, like it
could be from 1996 or so. Overall, though, I think that HOW MANY
HEARTS just might put Traci Kennedy in front of enough people
for her to make an impact---and keep finding her niche!
Chuck's rating:
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