Donna De Lory
Donna De Lory’s masterful new album, Here in Heaven, is a gorgeous mélange of all the flavors and colors in the gifted singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist’s musical world. Her vision and breathtaking voice have range enough to embrace all her influences on Here in Heaven. The self-produced album blends vibrant Indian and Latin tonalities with contemporary grooves, lavish string arrangements, and exquisite melodies.
De Lory honed her keen pop sensibility in two decades of touring the world as a dancer and backup singer for Madonna, and performing in the documentary film Truth or Dare and on the Who’s That Girl and five other Madonna tours. She grew up in a musical household—the daughter of the late Grammy-winning pianist Al De Lory. Her grandfather played in the studio orchestra at Warner Bros. for films including Casablanca and Gone With the Wind. With her 2004 album of sacred Sanskrit mantras, The Lover and the Beloved, De Lory became one of the foremost voices in world devotional music. All these elements meld beautifully on Here in Heaven.
Seven of the album’s nine songs are originals that showcase De Lory’s considerable skill with classic song structures. Her evocative melodies and extraordinary voice are framed by pristine instrumentation. Stylistically, the new album represents a bridge between De Lory’s two musical worlds, thus devotional pop music. It is an intimately personal work, with songs paying poignant tribute to both her late parents, a passionate Spanish-language ballad, “Amor Amor,” co-written with her father (and featuring him on piano), and open-hearted paeans to the beauty of nature and love. Donna covers two songs she’s always wanted to record, the moving “Never Be Mine” by Kate Bush and the lilting “Listen.” Co-written with singers Avasa and Matty Love and featuring a charming chorus starring Donna’s daughter Luci and her third-grade classmates, the result is utterly uplifting and ever so dancey!
Donna is headlining the “road-trip-inspiring” Summer Solstice Bhakti Village June 23 in Ashland, OR. donnadelory.com
—LLOYD BARDE (LLOYDBARDE.COM)