California Feeling Stephen Kalinich and Friends

23 of Stevie’s wonderful poems/songs are put together on this eclectic cd! The poet and lyricist, best known for his work with The Beach Boys, inspiring Dennis to have his first compositions on an album – Little Bird and Be Still. Two timeless classics that are given a lovely reworking on this cd, Little Bird is brought right up to date sung by Carnie and Wendy Wilson and produced by Carnie’s husband Rob Bonfiglio who also appears later on the cd with Stevie on “Never Before America’ . The cd starts with a beautiful instrumental introduction that gets the album off to a peaceful start, you are then back on the sun kissed shores of California with the Honeys making a vibrant glorious version of ‘California Feeling’. The second outing of this song, in as Many years, Al Jardine did a wonderful folksy’ version on his ‘Postcards from California’ album last year. ‘Ocean’ was recorded whilst Stevie was living in Brighton with a young chap called Paul Steel whose haunting vocal really sends this song to another level. ‘111 Cresmont Road’ hears Stevie on sparkling from, the other highlights of this brilliant collection are ‘Contemplating Life’ sung by Dan Knutson, sounding very much like Richard Ashcroft – this being far from a bad thing… Probyn Gregory from the Brian Wilson band gives a beautiful delicate reading of the fairly recently unearthed Dennis Wilson classic, ‘A Time to live in dreams’; Dennis’s son sings the beautiful ballad ‘Touch Your Skin’ one of my favourites. One of Stevie’s most known poems ‘The Magic Hand’ is given a beautiful reading by none other than Stacey Keach! He reads it with feeling and you really get caught up with the words, great musical backing on this track by Sarah Al Mulla. The whole album takes us on a great journey through the mind and wisdom of Stephen Kalinich. I highly recommend it to all… The words will linger in your hearts and minds forever! Mark Linet and Alan Boyd have produced this album and a great job they have done too!