Various Artists
Words for You
Hip-O Records
Anybody who loves a good storytelling will love Words for You. Everybody else will fall in love with storytelling after hearing these two discs of some of the most famous poems and short stories read by some of the greatest voices ever.
Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” is read by one of the best voices of all time, James Earl Jones.
One of the best readings is Jenny Joseph’s “Warning” read by the enigmatic Helena Bonham Carter. Her flamboyant personality really shows.
NPR staple Garrison Keilor, who can paint an audio canvas like a radio version of Bob Ross, takes Walt Whitman’s “Once I Pass’d Through a Populous” and makes it the most comfortable bedtime story ever told. Later, on the second disc, he caresses your eardrums with “Topography,” written by Sharon Olds, and James Wright’s “A Blessing.”
This is like an NPR lover’s dream come true. Famous poems, read by famous people, overtop of light classical (or piano) music. Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, and Terence Stamp are just a few of the names that contribute (and most contribute twice or more) readings of poems by Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, and more. Each brings his own personality to the poems, but still maintains the meaning and feeling of the originals. Words for You taps into a truly lost art and makes me yearn for my poetry books because these words not only have new life, but new voices – and they are beautiful.
Hip-O: http://www.hip-oselect.com
