It all comes down to the singer and the song.

Anne Murray knows. "I've always felt: a great responsibility for the songs I sing," says Anne. "I've always had to be touched in some way by a song before I felt I could do it. This sounds very serious, but- what I mean is, in order to interpret a song and get people to be touched by it, you have to feel it. That's always been very important to me.

Which one of the most immediately recognizable voices in popular music, Anne Murray is a singer's singer whose many industry achievements - four Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards and 25 June Awards in her native Canada as well as a place in the June Hall of Fame - might- satisfy any other contemporary recording artist.

Remarkably, for her 30th album, which not only is her first recording in three years, but first ever to be released under the pointedly direct title of Anne Murray, she set out to meet a personal challenge. Despite the record sales and her consistent popularity as a performer, Anne Murray regards herself as one of the foremost interpreters of contemporary pop. In these days of Joan Osborne, k.d. Lang, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt or Mary Chapin Carpenter, however, she is very much aware that she is not alone. A new Anne Murray album had to be distinctive and had to be a reminder of her relevance in this field of great vocalists. She isn't only satisfied with the result, she's thrilled.

For the singer, it all came down to the song.

Teaming up with producer Ed Cherney, Anne listened to be touched by songs from Randy Goodrum (writer of Anne's number one hit, "You Needed Me", and the new album's, "Me Too"), Jann Arden (Missing You"), Mark Goldenberg with Tom Littlefield ("Shame On Me"), Ian Thomas ("Good Again"), Cyril Rawson with Kerry Chater and Lynn Gillespie Chater ("That's The Way It Goes") and Bryan Adams, who, with Gretchen Peters, wrote the soulful, imploring "What Would It Take" specifically for her. It was very exciting to get 'What Would It Take'," Anne recalls. "We were just about to go into the studio, and when the song came along I wondered about the chances of getting Bryan to sing on it."

"Sometimes these things are meant to be because the week we were in the studio, Bryan was coming to Toronto to attend an industry dinner - he was getting an award - and I was doing vocals that very day. He just dropped by and did all his vocals that afternoon and went to the dinner that night."

An Anne Murray fan, Brian couldn't stop this thing he'd started. Before "What Would it Take" was finished, he'd made off with the tape to France where he was recording his next album and put added guitar and effects on it.

"Bryan's a great one," Anne says, chuckling. "I had a bet with Ed that Bryan would not leave the studio with that tape. I told Ed, 'He's nor taking it anywhere. Ed said, I know he will; I know he'll take it: he'll want: to play with it."'

"So he did. My God, I had to pay Ed twenty bucks!"

Another kind of serendipity connected Anne to Aron Neville, who imprints his own brand of melismatic soul on the Amy Sky/David Rickellpenned duet, "That's What My Love For". Another Anne fan, Aaron had expressed a desire to sing with her one day. When, in turn, his name came up, James "Hutch" Hutchinson, bassist on the recording sessions and a close friend of Aaron's, made that day happen. Between these guest appearances (and another from Jann Arden, who sings on "The Other Side" with Anne's daughter, Dawn) and the songs she was moved to record for the album, Anne has risen to her own challenge.

Songs such as "That's The Way It Goes," "What: Would It Take," the gospel-flavored "I Know Too Much" and the slide-guitar drenched "Shame On Me" have a funky rhythm and blues feel. Cherney's eye for detail and ear for texture and the musicians' organic ensemble playing have produced an album of sleek contemporary pop that is also evocative of the sophisticated yet rootsy records that came out of Memphis and Muscle Shoals in the early '70s. There is understatement in the heart-wrenching "Missing You" and poignancy in "The Other Side"; wisdom in "Me Too" and bravado in "I Know Too Much." Pulling this diverse range of material together and providing the heart at it's center is the singer.

"My voice is stronger now than it ever was, yet I was having my hits while I was still finding my place vocally," Anne believes. "Singers such as Celine Dion or Mariah Carey have shown a great deal of maturity, vocally very early. It's miraculous what they do with their vocals. I don't think I started to mature vocally until my 3Os - or at least didn't know what I wanted or how to get there. It took me a lot longer. It doesn't any more. I know what I want now and get there very quickly."

Perhaps this is why Anne waited until 1993 to record her labor of love, Croonin'. A double platinum hit in Canada, Anne's interpretations of "Moments To Remember," "Allegheny Moon" and other standards and favorites from her childhood not only met a different kind of challenge and reflected her maturity but also anticipated by three years the current reappraisal for pre-rock and roll pop and easy listening music currently in vogue.

Anne Murray knows.

"That was something I was dying to do," she states. "I went into the studio because I wanted to do it and that was that. It's timeless. I'm really happy with that album; it's among my top three favorites of all the albums I've done."

The three years that followed Croonin' were also among the most eventful of her career. In 1995, EMI released the three CD boxed retrospective Now & Forever, and in March the following year, Anne successfully hosted Canada's music industry awards, the Juno's, which was one of the most popular telecasts in the event's 25 year history. Such activity coincided with (or reinforced) a renewed admiration and respect for Anne's talent, influence and integrity, but for her it was eclipsed by the death from cancer in 1995 of her manager and friend, Leonard Rambeau.

"At one stage I didn't want to be bothered with a career," confesses Anne. "Leonard and I had been together for so long that it never occurred to me I might, have to do without him. It's been devastating and was difficult just trying to get myself interested again." "The album is really what did it. EMI said, 'We want a new album, we want to get behind it and EMI worldwide is committed to it.' They got me kickstarted." Now managed by Bruce Allen, Anne has completed an album that fully reduces the listening to its essence.

Anne Murray knows.

"It's very simple: 'you find good songs and you sing them."

EMI Records

EMI
1290 Avenue Of The Americas . NYC 10104

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