FamilyFans Music

###

IF YOU WANT ME TO (THE BEST OF GINNY OWENS)

Ginny Owens / Rocketown Records

Fan Appeal: Teens to Adults

Genre: Pop / Inspirational

No doubt about it – people love a story. Marketers discovered a long time ago that between two otherwise equal products, the one with a story – a colorful tag with a history, or a charitable cause – will significantly outsell the other.

Now, I enjoy music of all kinds, but I’m particularly drawn to artists who can tell me a story with their songs. Ginny Owens has been a favorite of mine since I first heard her in 1999. I remember when I first listened to the song “If You Want Me To.” I needed to know who that was singing. I needed to know more about her story. And, as it turns out, Ginny has quite a story.

That song, “If You Want Me To” later became a nominee for Song of The Year in 2001, and her CD entitled “Without Condition” (from which I heard the song) won her a Dove Award for Best Artist of the Year, so it looks like I’m not the only one who likes Ginny’s story songs.

So, needless to say I was looking forward to a good listen to Ginny’s first “Best Of” project.

Before I go on, I feel as though I must opine a bit about “Best Of” projects in general. Is it just me, or has the thrill and anticipation all but disappeared from “Best Of” projects? It’s certainly not like days gone by when a “Best Of” project was a highly anticipated event and when you finally received it, all your waiting was rewarded with tons of little extras in the liner notes, photographs, quips and additional information about the artist or band. Do you remember? Today, many “Best Of” projects feel more like the record company has thrown something together simply to fulfill contractual obligations.

However, in defense of this project, I must say that the collection of songs is pretty good – I’m glad I’m not the one who had to choose which of Ginny’s songs should be included. Plus, Ginny offers just a taste of days gone by with a short paragraph in the liner notes that tells the story behind each of the songs, or how a song came about, or what it means to her. See, that’s the story I’m talking about. People want to know this stuff!

Anyway, you’ll be drawn into Ginny’s world with thirteen of her amazing songs when you listen to this “Best Of” CD, including “Free” (#1 Adult Contemporary and Top 15 AC Single of the Year) from her 1999 Without Condition project and “I Am” (#3 Adult Contemporary and Top 5 Christian Hit Radio) from her 2002 release, Something More.

There’s also a new track entitled “Open Arms” which is an upbeat, kind of funky pop number that reminds me of something someone else would do – which puzzled me as to why it was included on a “Best Of” project. It’s a new song that Ginny didn’t write, and perhaps as a result was clearly not as exciting as one of her original songs.

Another puzzling song choice had me scratching my bald head, too. There’s the song “Remember Me” on which you can hear Ginny singing backup to Mark Shultz. I love this song, but Mark wrote and performed it. Why is it on Ginny’s “Best Of?”

A few interesting surprises include a clever cover of U2’s “40” and a live version of Ginny’s #1 hit, “If You Want Me To” from the A Night In Rocketown CD. I enjoyed the live conversation as Smitty introduces Ginny, since it gives a charming glimpse of her true personality, and a story about Ginny’s life – see, there’s that story thing again!

If you like the contemporary pop sound of Amy Grant, Nicole Nordeman or Sara Groves and you’re not familiar with Ginny’s sonic storytelling, you’re going to want to have this CD in your iPod for sure. If you’re already a Ginny fan, don’t get rid of your other Ginny CDs just yet as the “Best Of” song selection might be up for debate. But, you just can’t go wrong with any of Ginny’s projects. Enjoy!

--Eric Jaqua

###