Album review: Michelle Turley - Dance With Me Tonight

By Glenda S. Paradee

The new album by Michelle Turley, Dance With Me Tonight, is full of sassy, emotional, songs of losing love, loneliness, forgiveness, breakups, heartaches and finally finding love again!  I call it life!

Track 1, Caroline, is a sassy, upbeat song about a girl who married the wrong man and wants to go back home to Caroline where she might find real happiness.
Track 2, Hard Times, another sassy, fast song about someone not happy with their life.
Track 3, I Can’t Cry, is one of my favorites on the album.  It reminded me of Paulette Carlson who is one of my most favorite singers.  It is a song about wanting a reconciliation of a lost love, and then wondering, is it worth it.
Track 4, Now I Know, a story about someone finally finding love.
Track 5, Memory, my favorite song on the album with a feel of Paulette Carlson again.  About someone reminiscing of a relationship ending and thinking of the past and is very sad that the relationship is over and that she knows she made a big mistake.
Track 6, I Can’t Help Lovin You, about a girl who sees her past love with another and then realizing she still love him and wants to get back with him.
Track 7, I Understand, about a girl who understands why the guy left to need some time away from relationship because she has been there too.
Track 8, Bus Stop, about you don’t know what road your going to take in life, so enjoy the ride of life until the end at the bus stop of life.
Track 9, Dance With Me Tonight, the title tract of the album.  A live performance about hearing a song and remembering a slow dance with someone that made you feel so good.
Track 10, Daddy, about a young girl who’s father left the family and was lost to drinkin’ and gamblin’, but she still loves her daddy.
Track 11, Best Love In The World, about finding love to last a lifetime.
Track 12, If I Could Be With You, about someone is dreaming to be with someone again, what would she say.
Track 13, Caroline (in orange blossoms), this is the Tract 1 song with a version of the Orange Blossom Special added.
Track 14, No Place Like Home, about a girl wants to reconcile with a lost love.

These songs from Michelle Turley are true traditional country music.  She has a great voice.  On the album notes she thanks her brother CF, her children, her husband and her mother Helen.  She must have strong family roots and it shows in her music and songs.  Go out and get this album and listen to it over and over.  I ‘m sure it will remind you of something that has happened in your own life.  Michelle put into words what we have all felt.

July 22, 2009

Neil Haislop, Country Music Reviews, is recognized as one of country radio’s leading writers, researchers and producers. Neil Haislop review’s Michelle Turley’s ‘Dance With Me Tonight.’ It’s unusual for a younger female artist to go for a very traditional country singing style, harking back to the Divas of the ’60s and early ’70s. But, that’s what Michelle Turley has achieved with the release of her new album, Dance With Me Tonight.

Michelle has definitely channelled, Kittie, Wanda, Loretta, Tammy,etc., while putting her own stamp of please-don’t-leave-me, done-me-wrong, love me tonight, I’ll get by passion, on each vocal of the CD.

The style is driven home by a band of authentic pickers, bass, drums, and cryin’ steel guitar like you haven’t heard for a long while. Didn’t know what to expect when I got the CD with a pretty brunette staring back at me, but it was refreshing to hear an artist so convincingly take a 180 degree turn away form the increasingly pop-rock sound of mainstream country that prevails today.

There’s no place like home
No place like home
It’s been said many times
Many ways I hope that you know
I want you to stay… please stay
It’s been said many times many ways
There’s no place like home

Our love isn’t blind
To the cruel and unkindness
We felt when we were alone
Remember our love
Has been sent from above
God blessed it and made it our home

Our love is the kind
That breaks and unwinds
Yet made stronger all the time
Two hearts on the mend
Let’s try it again
My love you’ll always be mine

There’s no place like home
No place like home
It’s been said many times many ways
I hope that you know
I want you to stay… please stay
The love that we had in our past
We haven’t outgrown
I’ll beg you to stay
Please don’t go away
My heart cries out today
There’s no place like home
Please hear with your heart
What I say…there’s no place like home

If I could be with you
One more time you’d make
The sun shine through
The clouds again
All the things I’d say
About the moments
I just threw away
When you were here

(Chorus)

All the times I never said enough
And walked away
When ever things got rough
If I could be with you
If I could be with you

If the skies turned pink
I’d need a miracle to stop and think
How lucky I was
To see your face again
In all the pictures
Of places we’ve been
In happy times

I’d trade places with you if I could
So you could live your life
Just like you should
If I could be with you
If I could be with you

Tomorrow’s another day
I have to face knowing
You are away
No longer here
Something you need to know
The painful words
I have to let you go
But I’ll always love you

(Repeat chorus)

Your love is so content
Best love of any man
You’ll always be there by my side
Through thick and then
Till the day I die
And there’s something you should know
In my heart you live and grow
My soul is nothing without you
I’ll be by your side
Till our days are through

Seven years will mark the time
When you said that you were mine
When you took my hand
And said I do to me
And you’ve always put me first
Telling me our love is worth
More than anything
A man could ever dream
From my heart I want to tell you
These few words
You’re the best love in the world
Best love in the world…

When I was just a girl
Dreaming in my little world
Of a love that momma read
From a book to me
Now I look around my world
Now a grown up country girl
And that book now I know
I can believe

My companion and my friend
And our love will never end
You fill my life with love and security
And you’ve always put me first
Telling me our love is worth
More than anything
A man could ever dream
From my heart
I want to tell you these few words

You’re the best love in the world
Best love in the world
My love….

My grey skies blue when I met you
Our love feels new like the birds in June
You light up my life baby when I’m blue
You’ve given everything I’ve dreamed
As a girl
From my heat I want to tell you
These few words

You’re the best love in the world
Best love in the world…

Daddy went away when I was just a girl
I was nearly thirteen
He said he’d always be there for me
And when I marry
Well daddy lived life a little too hard
Drinking and gambling
Momma please don’t you cry anymore
And remember this

(Chorus)

When did daddy say goodbye
At night he was bad to you
Daddy even made me cry
I’m glad he’s gone
And you should be too
Just a girl when you left
Mom and me alone
Daddy where are you?
In my heart…despite what I say
I still love you

Momma you were so young
When you met daddy
You’re family said he’s no good
Still you loved him madly
So you took the vows for better or worse
Thinking you’d be happy
Well momma please don’t you cry anymore
And remember this…

(Repeat chorus)

Several days have passed now
Since you went away
Something inside says you’ll be ok
I could tell you wore a painted smile
You had it on for days
Before you left
I hope you heard what I had to say

(Chorus)

I’ll always be here for you
I understand I do…
I understand what you’ve been through
I’ll always be here for you
I understand…
Because I’ve been there too

Past few nights without you
I try to be strong
The day seem so empty
And the nights are way too long
I wish I could help you find the answer
And you’d…bring your answer home
But I know you must do this on your own

(Repeat chorus)

Several months have passed now
Since you went away
I got a postcard asking me
If you came home…
What would I say?

(Repeat chorus)

Memory…
Just a memory
Now we are nothing more
Than just memory

From the beginning …I loved you
And I know you felt the same way too
And now I sleep.. here all alone in this big bed
Living with the mistake I let you go

(Chorus)

Memory… they keep haunting me
Now I have lost your love
And we are memory

And I can’t stop the pain
That I feel inside me each day
The biggest mistake of my life
Was I let you go

(Repeat Chorus)