Judy Whitmore - This is Home
by Kevin Wierzbicki
She's a licensed jet pilot, a best-selling author, a licensed psychotherapist and a producer working in theater, so you might wonder when acclaimed vocalist Judy Whitmore has time to record new music. Well, when it's something close to her heart that she wants to sing about, she finds the time. And that's the case with the six songs on
This is Home where Whitmore celebrates the 250th anniversary of the U.S.A. with renderings of patriotic American favorites. Whitmore begins the EP with "The House I Live In," a cut that asks the question, "What is America to me?" that Whitmore answers with a heartfelt list that includes the family home and the neighborhood inhabitants, the grocer and butcher and children in the playground and the fluttering flag and democracy. The song begins with a big orchestral flourish that represents the grandeur of the country she's singing about, and the takeaway here is that the referred to "house I live in" is about something much greater than a domicile. The orchestra, more than 30 pieces strong, and an eight person choir accompany Whitmore throughout including on two patriotic chestnuts, the beloved "America the Beautiful" that is here performed just a touch slower than normally heard, perhaps to let the lyrics really sink in, and Irving Berlin's classic "God Bless America." "America Medley" honors American servicemen and women with a vibrant mash-up of the Navy's "Anchors Aweigh," the Army's "The Caissons Go Rolling Along" and the Air Force theme "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder." Whitmore wraps the EP up with "My Country 'Tis of Thee" paired with another Berlin tune, "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor" which has a nice mid-song break that features the chorus, the only such spotlight on the record.
This is Home finishes with Whitmore dipping into the George M. Cohan songbook for "Over There"/"You're a Grand Old Flag." Judy's voice is strong and emotional throughout and while there is a bit of sadness here and there the overall mood here is joyous as it should be as America celebrates her 250th birthday.
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