I'm listening to this right now.

Susan Werner has chosen ten classic songs from the 60s and 70s and done them with a chamber orchestra. In some cases, she blends in some classical music with the pop songs. Sounds tricky, but she really pulls this off. I'm loving this CD. Great Sunday morning/Sunday afternoon music. For example, she does Bob Marley's "Waiting In Vain" mixed with a little Erik Satie. Sounds weird, but it really works.

Werner is a classically trained singer songwriter who's been putting out some great CDs for some time now. I've seen her live several times and she's extremely talented. Has a wicked sense of humor to boot, which makes her live appearances very entertaining.

I'd particularly recommend her albums Time Between Trains and New Non-Fiction, but everything she's done is worth hearing.

This new one is a real gem, though. An interesting concept extremely well done by someone who has the rare talent to do so.

Oh, yeah, and she grew up in rural Iowa about 45 minutes from where I did.

http://www.susanwerner.com

Here 'tis:

Product Description

• Ten pop songs by Steview Wonder, Paul McCartney, Marving Gaye, Paul Simon and others from a classic era of Songwriting (1960's-70's)
• All new arrangements for string quartet and classical instruments, with melodic quotations from well known classical compositions
• Standout vocals from Susan Werner
• World class performances by Boston Symphony Orchestra/Boston Pops instrumentalists

Over the course of her colorful career, singer songwriter Susan Werner has cultivated a reputation as a daring and innovative songwriter with a killer live show. She boldly endeavors to weave old with new to create altogether new genres of music when existing ones do not suit her muse, and she regularly keeps audiences guessing and laughing simultaneously. Most of her work infuses traditional music styles and methods with her unmistakable contemporary worldview, constantly challenging listeners to experience music from a fresh and unexpected perspective. Susan Werner's new release Classics asks no less of her distinguished audience or herself.

With Classics, Werner delivers entirely new string arrangements of mainstream popular songs by top songwriters from a "classical" pop era - the sixties and seventies. Drawing on her unique training as a classical vocalist (she has a master's degree in music history and voice performance), and the diverse talents of esteemed Boston Symphony and Pops players, Classics sets a mood that highlights elegance and sophistication previously overlooked in the first lives of songs like Paul Simon's A Hazy Shade of Winter, Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed and America's Lonely People.

Produced by Crit Harmon (Martin Sexton, Mary Gauthier, Lori McKenna among others, and 2007 Boston Music Awards Producer of the Year), and co-arranged by Werner with renowned Boston Pops arranger and pianist Brad Hatfield, Classics features ten songs chosen because they met three deeply considered criteria: the renewed relevancy of their messages for modern times, their correlation with her own worldview as a folk pop singer/songwriter, and their potential to blossom when performed with chamber music instruments.

In addition to re-fashioning each song for the accompaniment of string quartet, woodwinds, brass, classical guitar or piano, Werner invites listeners to enjoy the surprising connections between pop and classical music by incorporating the occasional quotation from the world of classical music into these arrangements. States Werner: "It seemed to me a chamber music approach to pop songs could reveal the poetry and impact of some of these lyrics in ways that groove driven arrangements completely overlook."

1. Lonely People 2:22
2. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) 3:16
3. The Wind 2:18
4. Waiting In Vain 4:36
5. A Hazy Shade Of Winter 4:47
6. Turn Turn Turn 3:39
7. All In Love Is Fair 3:43
8. Maybe I'm Amazed 3:15
9. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood 4:24
10. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times 3:12

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001OXJ6ZM/?tag=imwan-20