The Dreamsicles

REVIEWS

SING OUT! REVIEWS "YELLOW"
Live, Cary Cooper exudes a total
sense of comfort with herself and
you'll want what she's feeling. There's
nothing cryptic about her writing
either. Her songs are as warm and
approachable as her personality.
Yellow is a celebration of free souls,
and feeling worthy. Messages
especially promote connections
between mothers, daughters and
the uncaged spirit. Tom Prasasa-Rao
lends his professional excellence in
engineering, mixing and as producer.
On "Hannah Hold Your Heart" and
"Little Girl" she passes on to her
daughters the power of honoring
inner beauty. "Cinderella" examines a
mom's life choices. It's about finding
your own role models beyond the world
of fairy tales and Disney. We're all
free to define the form that our "happy
ever after" should take. Listening to
"Back When I Was Grown Up," if
autobiographical, we hear clues to
the changes Cary has made. Breaking
from PTA, choir, and lesbian-phobia
molds she's redefined herself and become
the cool mom on the block, sporting
a nose ring, an Internet "myspace" site
and a CD. The title cut is a kick back
to the influence of her '60s parents.
"Yellow" is the color of the V.W. bug
she bought cheaply from her hippy uncle.
The car gets her where she wants to go,
just a little slow. Speed is not the issue
here, rather, enjoying the freedom of the
ride, perhaps a metaphor for her life.
Cary Cooper has a penchant for quotes,
and is especially fond of one by Marianne
Williamson that urges being "brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, and fabulous" and
states that "Your playing small doesn't
serve the world." Cooper also loves
George Eliot's "It's never too late to be
what you might have been." If this
matches your life vision, then Cary Cooper
should supply your daily soundtrack. --AP

JONATHAN BYRD ON "YELLOW"
Cary's album "Yellow" is in high
rotation right now. It's like a trip to the
beach in a convertible, like when it
gets really hot and you forget about
how much sun you've had, so you're sort
of in a dream state but you don't realize it
and suddenly you're crying for no reason,
maybe it's just the song, maybe it's leaving
hat tragic air-conditioned cubicle behind
and the petty world of ticking clocks,
that ridiculous ticking, and now the ticking
slows down and spreads out into the
washing waves and you laugh at the sign
on the touristy gas station and hot dog stand,
"Stop Here- Get Gas," and now the whole
world makes sense, it's just a song, just a
long funny song where we fall in love,
drop our pants, and nurse our wounded
hearts in the saltwater womb of the Earth.
That night, there's sand in the bed sheets,
tickling your sunburn, and the ceiling fan
turns the salty air in the night. You get up
and fix yourself a drink, go out on the
screened-in porch and smell the ocean.
You are no years old and dreams come true.
You're horny and the ocean smells like sex.
You fall asleep in the sandy, grinding
rocking chair with your hand in your pants,
drooling on your own left shoulder.

BUDDY MAGAZINE REVIEWS
"LUV SONGS" & "YELLOW"
While Cary Cooper was doing
everything, it seems, except
fulfill a childhood dream to be
a songwriter, Tom Prasado-Rao
was becoming a more-than-respected n
ame in the folk genre. Well, this is a
love story, so they hooked up now
they make beautiful music together,
mostly love songs and other sweetness
in the folk vein. There's a little bit of
humor in Luv Songs for Grownups
and Yellow, some fine harmonies,
and plenty of upbeat energy that stays j
ust on this side "the good side"
of too cute. Long story short: the
Dallas-based duo wrote their first song
together in the summerof 2002 and
recorded their first Dreamsicles
album in the fall of that same year.
Cooper taught dance and worked with
Paula Abdul, Teri Hatcher, and Tina Landon
(choreographer for Janet Jackson, Ricky
Martin, and Britney Spears) before working
as a fitness instructor and teaching
children English as a second language.
Prasado-Rao made albums and had
his songs covered by such diverse
artists as country singer Randy Travis,
David Wilcox, Ronny Cox, Christian
artist Bob Bennett, and tabla master
(Indian hand drums) Broto Roy.
Prasado-Rao won the Kerrville Folk
Festival's New Folk Competition
in 1993; Cooper won it in 2004. There's a
lot of variety in the performances, from
the Eastern-Western blended music
and folk vocals of the contemplative
"What We Know" to the easy rap of "He's
All That" (which gets by with claiming
he's as sweet as pumpkin pie) to the
bluegrass funk of "I Want What I Want
(when I want it)." Cooper's solo CD ,
produced byPrasado-Rao, is vaguely,
but not much, darker, a place where
angels drink tequila and lovers sing the
blues, but also a place where Cooper
urges her young daughter to, among other
things, find a song in each teardrop. The
title song ("Yellow") and "Back When I Was
Grown Up" both belong to the Peter Pan
school of maturity rather than to the ordinary
world of boring adult expectations.
The music, almost call it folk funk,
shines on both CDs.
-Tom Geddie

SING OUT! REVIEWS
LUV SONGS FOR GROWNUPS:
Love songs are hard to write
'cause, shoot, with billions of
them already out there how can
you do it without relying on sappy
moon/June lyrics? Let The
Dreamsicles show you how.
From the thoughtful ballad "Survivor"
to lighter material like "Unless
You Take Yes for an Answer,"
this pop-folk-funk duo has it all
sewed up, baby, and damn is it fine.
Cary Cooper and Tom Prasada-Rao
wrote 11 of the songs, plus included
a great cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay
Together" like it was meant to be sung -
with conviction by two people who
love each other. They're like an acoustic
Earth, Wind and Fire on some songs -
"He's All That," for instance - just take
out the horn section and add Gina
Forsyth's wonderfully funky violin
or Tom's on-the-money guitar. They
even sing a bit of Sly Stone's "Thank
you (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"
at the end of one of the tracks. Also
on the lighter side is "Really Good at
Loving You" where Cary lists all the
things she's not good at like getting to
her laundry before she runs out of
underwear, but there's that one thing
she does really well. It's followed by
Tom's answer where he comments that
she's "...a little Mr. Rogers, a little bit
Billie Holiday..." Catch the sexy lyrics
and nasty slide guitar of "I Want What
I Want" and see where your mind goes.
There's a great '60's pop groove in "Turn
Me On" and "He's All That" has a rap
section. Since most of the songs bop
along on a cool bed of percussion I
jokingly wondered about a dance mix.
That's when I found the hidden track, a
very funny version of one of the earlier
songs plus some outtakes, all done over
a drum loop like a disco song.
Perfect ending to a really great release.
Highly recommended.
- JA (Sing Out!)

MINOR 7TH REVIEWS "LUV SONGS"
Sibling harmonies always sound sweet, but
it makes sense that harmony vocals
between lovers might sound infinitely
much sweeter. That's definitely the case
with Cary Cooper and Tom Prasada-Rao, a
duo dubbing themselves The Dreamsicles.
I've finally found a nice reason to be
a grown-up... my ears and heart get to be
the welcome recipient of a pop sound par
excellence which plumbs a little deeper
and wiser. Alan Fark