Album Review from Amazon: “Running Into Greatness”
“Chasing Trains, the engaging new album by Judy Haines, is worth your money and your time. An accomplished song cycle of love, lost and found, it fits neatly among Carole King’s Tapestry, early Heart, Bruce Hornsby’s The Way It Is, and Sarah McLachlan’s Solace. But it’s more danceable. Trains is a dozen well-crafted, piano-based songs that sublimely meld adult contemporary, blues, gospel, and folk-rock in a way that would make the Brill Building raise an eyebrow.
The album works thematically. You can listen to Trains in one sitting. A world-weary hopefulness runs right down the center of it. With every listen, you get closer to a sense of how love looks so different depending on where you’re standing in it. Or pick your song of the day; the songs stand on their own. Each delivers a gut honesty with economy, eschewing needless flourish.
A few highlights. “Is It You,” the urgent, yearning opening track, the gospel shout and religious imagery of “Sweet River of Love,” the mysterious, cascading passion of “Drowning,” and the soul-searching melancholy of the title track. Haines offers reassurance through the inevitable hard times in “I’m Here,” gives up some straight ahead blues on “Shiver” and then takes us “Home,” where love’s possibilities abound. And there’s much more. No filler here. Sometimes the best music comes at you from places other than the top of the charts. An album this authentic deserves to be up there, but it’s not there just yet. Download it. Your iPod will thank you. And you’ll be supporting local music.”