Dara Starr Tucker

Time Wouldn’t Wait

 Green Hill Productions

Most of us first heard vocalist, songwriter, and cultural commentator Dara Starr Tucker when she appeared on Keb’ Mo’s Grammy-winning Oklahoma, on which she co-wrote the title track. Yet her latest album, Time Wouldn’t Wait, is her third solo release. She blends her seven originals with classic tunes from film as she sings about the impermanence of time, memories, and the notion of living in the present. It’s not a concept album but one united by theme.  Tucker’s star has grown brighter through her previous two albums, enabling her to attract an exceptional backing cast for this effort. Produced by Greg Bryant, and mixed and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Mike Marciano, the musician lineup includes organist/pianist Gary Versace, pianist Larry Goldings, trumpeter Rod McGaha, drummers Marcus Finnie and Christian Euman, bassist Vicente Archer, and vibraphonist Simon Moullier. Together, they frame Tucker’s pure, crystalline but emotive vocals brilliantly.  The album represents a major step forward for Tucker as a composer.

Tucker begins with the ebullient original, “It’s My Time,” featuring the sparkling piano of Versace and some layered vocals. The gospel-tinged ballad “Tall Georgia Pines” features Versace’s church-like organ and captures Tucker’s acute phrasing and expansive vocal range. Also in the meditative category is the title track, a treatise on the fleeting nature of time and the need to appreciate the now (“time doesn’t always wait for you”…” time will always be there for you”). Again, Versace delivers the sterling piano accompaniment while Simon Moullier takes the effervescent vibes solo.

The upbeat, syncopated “Happy to Be Loving You” features Versace’s organ and McGaha’s trumpet. It’s yet another example of how Tucker fuses jazz, soul, and folk music seamlessly, this one leaning one heavily toward jazz, in part due to the trumpet parts. The dark ballad “Brick Wall’ is about the struggle to put heartbreak behind. The pianist is Goldings leading a trio of producer Bryant on bass and Euman on drums for a late-night piano lounge vibe. That same trio returns for “The Space,” a brighter, mid-tempo tune that Tucker caps gorgeously in the outro. “Waiting for the Night” is another tender ballad with prominent accompaniment from Versace doubling on piano and organ, with McGaha on muted trumpet.

Interspersed among these originals are “Pure Imagination” (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) with a perky solos from McGaha and Versace,  the haunting, ethereal organ and vibes- driven “Twilight and Mist” (Legends of the Fall), and classic ballad treatment for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “I Have Dreamed” (The King and I). These pieces fit seamlessly into the repertoire, yet the surprising standout is her cover of Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For” from Barbie, again a ballad but one that best captures the emotional nuances of Tucker’s vocals, supported by delicate spots from Versace (organ) and Moullier.

The sound and production values are immaculate. One can clearly hear every breath and lyric.  Though mostly introspective, it’s one that listeners will likely return to often because every element is so tightly woven into this superb effort.

• Jim Hynes

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