Heather Greene
Sweet Otherwise
Paved Earth Music
By Al Kaufman
Alcohol and music have successfully co-mingled since the invention of both but never in a way as they do with Heather Greene. The fledgling singer/songwriter decided to move to Scotland to work on her music and explore her heritage. What she found was whisky. She discovered the craftsmanship for scotch closely resembles that of songwriting. Greene soon became the first American woman to sit on a tasting panel, and eventually became a US Glenfiddich Whisky Ambassador, which currently serves as her day job.
Greene doesn't do too bad on her night job either. Like her favorite beverage, Greene's voice on Sweet Otherwiseis smooth, warm, and alluring. It gently coats her moody instrumentations, bringing out their subtle flavors.
Greene has a voice that falls somewhere between that of Texan Abra Moore and Canadian Jane Siberry (who currently goes under the moniker Issa). Her voice is light and airy, with enough depth so that it never floats away.
"Get Up and Go" and "(You Are) So Nice to Listen To," back to back tracks in the middle of the album, offer a good taste of the beauty of the CD. On the first track, Greene tries to convince a friend to start dating one of her own exes because, she tells her friend, who is obviously getting older, "you don't have much time." The"oh, oh, ohhh, oh" chorus and upbeat melody recalls Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries. That song gives way to the atmospheric "(You Are) So Nice to Listen To." With a melodic structure similar to the Beatles in their Rubber Soul era, the song lingers in your brain long after it over.
Occasionally, the songs seem to be exercises in mood instead of melody, but if, for some strange reason, everyone decides to give up alcohol, Greene will always have a viable job to fall back upon.
