The average singer, on her debut album, does not get
Lou Reed and
Vernon Reid to play guitars,
Christian McBride to play bass, and Stephen Perkins (of
Jane's Addiction) to play drums (not all on the same track), nor does she get to duet with
Aaron Neville on a song for which she has set his lyrics. And she doesn't get to collaborate extensively with the noted bassist
Rob Wasserman, either. But then, the average singer is not
Sara Wasserman,
Rob Wasserman's daughter, who has used her family connection to make other connections. This isn't simple nepotism, however.
Rob Wasserman himself has made a career out of putting together guest-star-filled albums such as his
Duets and Trios collections, so the star power that fuels
Solid Ground constitutes a family tradition. And once one actually listens to the resulting music, the names don't make that much difference.
McBride's bass playing is noticeable, particularly in "Little Bird (Reprise)" (a song written by
Rob Wasserman and
Jules Shear), on which he is the sole instrumentalist. Otherwise, however, only
Neville, with his unmistakable high tenor, takes the spotlight away from the featured artist. Happily,
Sara Wasserman proves worthy of all the attention, writing a series of quality jazz/blues songs and singing them in a slightly throaty contralto that is full of feeling. She is at her best when she is going for a blues feel, as on "Little Bird," or a blue-eyed soul impression, such as on the cover of
Hall & Oates' "Sara Smile." Less impressive is a tendency to wander into
Christina Aguilera/
Beyoncé territory, as on "Somehow Forever." But it must be hard for any singer who grew up in the 1980s and '90s not to have suffered even a little bit from the influence of the inane
Whitney Houston sound-effects-for-their-own-sake school of over-singing. Most of the time, however,
Wasserman recalls
Bonnie Raitt and
Raitt's antecedents instead of
Houston and her little sisters, making this a debut that easily transcends being just the sum of its guest shots. ~ William Ruhlmann