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5/18/2005 Ron Wynn, The City Paper, Nashville, TN Vantreese stretches her style

Singer/songwriter Lynette Vantreese previously has proven through live appearances and her critically praised self-titled 2002 CD that she was both a literate and engaging writer and an appealing and distinctive vocalist whose sound balanced a folk sensibility and pop feel. But Vantreese is now branching out stylistically, both as a vocalist and a composer. A forthcoming new CD will spotlight original music that Vantreese said will reveal another side of personality and interest, and fans can hear some of this new material during her appearance tonight at the Five Spot. "Brett [her husband guitarist Brett Vantreese] and I have really been getting more into the rock end, both with our writing and also in what we've been listening to lately," Vantreese said. "For instance, there was a time vocally when I wouldn't think about covering anything by an artist like Jimi Hendrix, but now we've got one of his songs in our list, and the audiences really love it. My voice has gotten a lot stronger in the last three years, and now there are things that I can do in terms of range and register that before I wouldn't try. "The songs we're working for the new disc have more edge to them, though we're not completely moving away from pop. But I think that the new material is more varied and better rounded, and really shows the whole spectrum of music that I enjoy." A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied songwriting and musical performance, Vantreese's compositional specialty has been the story song. Her previous release reflected that with a number of heartfelt, lush and expressive ballad and midtempo numbers. But she has made some subtle adjustments on that end as well. "I'm finding ways now of shortening and condensing things, still keeping the ideas in the song but sort of cutting back on the verbiage," Vantreese said. "It's real good discipline to try and get the idea right up in the front of the song, instead of making people wait for the hook and taking too long to develop the story. That's been a great lesson in doing more rock-styled music, because you have to establish a good balance between the beat, the vocal and the lyrics. The story will always be very important to me, but with these new songs, we've also learned the value of editing ourselves down a bit." Thanks to a new home studio that they recently built, the work on Vantreese's new release has been steady. She's hopeful that they'll have it available by early next year. "We're really taking our time and making sure that we're satisfied with everything on this next project," she said. "I think when it's finished, people will be glad we took our time." Fans can still purchase copies of Lynette Vantreese at LynetteVantreese.com.

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