Anita Baker...

Back in the mid 1980s, I loved listening to Anita Baker sing.  I first became familiar with her when I was 13 years old and her hit song "Sweet Love" was popular.  She was sort of the anti-Whitney Houston with her smokey alto and jazz stylings...

This is the song that introduced me to Anita Baker...

She followed up with the sensual "Caught Up In the Rapture", which was another song I loved.

Sweet love song...

I remember saving up my money so I could buy Rapture, the album from which these two songs came.  I pretty much wore out the tape, listening to it as I rode my bike back and forth from the barn where I kept my horse.

In 1988, she came out with "Giving You The Best That I Got", which I also liked.  It was such an elegant song and, having since become a singer myself, I have discovered that it's not an easy song to sing.  She does it effortlessly.

I liked this...

But I liked this song, a deeper cut, even more...

There's something very traditionally jazzy about this... I love its playful flirtatiousness.

When I was in college in 1990, Anita released Compositions, which was a strong set of modern "quiet storm" jazz influenced songs.

I like "Fairy Tales", though the words are a little hokey...

"Talk to Me" was more like modern R&&...

I bought her 1994 album "Rhythm of Love", which again, seemed more like R&B than the jazzy stuff she used to do.

"Sometimes I Wonder Why" is probably my favorite on this album, though she does a respectable cover of "You Belong To Me" by Carly Simon and Michael McDonald.

Probably my favorite of all of Anita's albums, however, is her debut, The Songstress.  It was released in 1983 and sounds it... But it has kind of a raw energy about it that I find very appealing.

"Feel The Need" is very sexy and passionate... and energetic...

I do have her album My Everything, but by the time it was released, my tastes had evolved somewhat.  I had lost interest in Anita.  And now it looks like she's not around as much as she once was.  But boy, what a talented lady and a wonderful singer.  I need to listen to her music more often.  She has a pretty interesting life story, too.  According to Wikipedia, she was raised by foster parents and a foster sister.  It's really something that she was able to rise to the heights she has.

Restless Heart...

I remember the first time I heard a song by Restless Heart, a country-rock band made up of session singers who were long on harmonies and short on edginess.  They had a beautiful love song that was a crossover hit called "I'll Still Be Loving You".

This song always reminds me of how horse crazy I was in the mid 1980s.  I was very much into 4-H and constantly went to horse shows and did other horsey stuff like fox hunts and competitive trail rides. I'm pretty grateful that I got to do those things growing up.  My horse kept me out of trouble.  I still love this love song, too.

A few years later, I bought a greatest hits compilation of Restless Hearts' songs and it occurred to me that they reminded me a lot of the Eagles.  And then it turned out that they were produced by Bernie Leadon, who was, in fact, one of the original Eagles.

Other songs Restless Heart made famous include the super saxy hit, "Tell Me What You Dream", a hit from the early 90s that reminds me of the stint I enjoyed at summer camp, working as the cook at Camp Paddy Run in Star Tannery, Virginia.

Around the same time, they came out with "When She Cries"...

Restless Heart mastered harmonies on their song "You Can Depend On Me".

And then there's the lovely "The Bluest Eyes In Texas"...

Restless Heart was a good solid band.  They were never huge stars, but they were very respectable.  I was reminded of them last night when I ran across karaoke for them...  I tried my hand at their song, "Hold Me Now".

And "I'll Still Be Loving You"...  I did both in higher keys.