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Artist: Lisa Aschman
Album: "The Stars"
CD Review: Genre: Jazz
Sounds Like: ?
Technical Grade: 10
Production/Musicianship Grade: 10
Commercial Value: 8
Overall Talent Level: 9
Songwriting Skills: 10
Performance Skill: 8
Best Songs: Slow Hurry, Homesick For New York, He Must Have Been Thinking Of You
Weakness: ?
CD Review: I met Lisa, a singer/songwriter who is from Nashville, Tennessee, while conducting a mentoring session at the West Coast Songwriters Annual Conference in Los Altos, California this year (2005). I was immediately impressed by her passion, commitment, and success in licensing her songs. She is an accomplished songwriter and vocalist with many song placements.

Her adult jazz project is refreshingly reminiscent of many jazz standards that people request at venues which feature such music. It's no accident; it's by design for licensing. Lisa performs her songs, her way, which is alluring, evocative, and professional. She's mastered her genre, and has the voice and lyrical skills to simultaneously capture your emotions and your mind.

The songs "Unexpected," and "He Must Have Been Thinking Of You," do her talents justice, but it's "Slow Hurry," the ballad with adult contemporary/easly listening crossover potential that gets my choice for the most commercial track on this project. It resonates a sensual undertone and conveys an adult theme that can be appreciated by workaholics everywhere. The follow-up, "Homesick For New York," will make you...well, homesick for New York - even if you've never been! It's that powerful of a song and it paints detail that is sure to conjure up memories for anyone who has ever lived in the Big Apple and has relocated. It's a true licensing gem.

The stars are not far away when you have talents like this to reach them.

Advice: Continue doing what you do. You are an asset to the jazz genre and you've found a niche in music licensing that not many can fill.

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