Heart & Soul

by Sharon MawerBy the time Charlie Landsborough released Heart & Soul in 2006, possibly even he had lost track of how many albums he had released. For the record it was 16, and at the age of 65, he could afford to take it easy and retire, but the Wrexham born country crooner came up with yet another soft easy listening set of songs. Landsborough's Christian beliefs were very important to him and Heart & Soul was his first foray into religious music with songs that were country in the style of Charlie Rich, and gospel and inspirational religious tracks, the songs "Lord I Hope This Day Is Good," "Song of Bernadette," "My Most Wonderful Time," and "I'm a Lucky Man" showing a man who knew his own mind and had found his niche on this earth. He wrote or co-wrote exactly half of the 18 tracks, most of the songs being ballads but a few, specifically, "Someone Is Looking for Someone Like You" has a prominent C&W fiddle, there is a chorus of Hallelujah's on "Saviour's Song," and a cover of Ocean's "Put Your Hand in the Hand" has an electric guitar break. He was at the stage of his career, where he could just pick the songs he wanted to sing and know that his fans would enjoy his laid-back MOR interpretations. Heart & Soul was supposed to be a mixture of love songs pertinent to the Heart and religious songs relevant to the Soul, and he chose to record the original songs "My Most Wonderful Time," "It's About Loving You," "Song for the Dragonfly," and the Dan Fogelberg hit "Longer" for the Heart section; and a cover "One Day at a Time" (a number one single in the '70s for Lena Martell), Bob Dylan's "Blowin in the Wind" and James Taylor's "You've Got a Friend" for the Soul part. For those fans who liked smooth, MOR country, with 18 songs and a running time of 71 minutes, Heart & Soul would be a good choice.