I have been a fan of René Marie since I first came across her first album on the MaxJazz label How Can I Keep from Singing. I have purchased everything she has produced and have never been let down. René Marie new album, Sound of Red, continues her record of releasing great music that you will treasure for many years. She has one of the greatest voices of our time.The album is produced by René Marie and Quentin Baxter who also plays drums on the album. Sound of Red contain all original songs by René Marie. She includes a book of the lyrics for each song but you will not need it since her diction is so clear and the mix on this album is very clean. You get that live feel without the challenging acoustics some live venues can produce.Here is my track by track reviewThe first track "Sound of Red" has a blues vamp sound to it that lays a good foundation for Ms. Marie's description of the sound of red. She is letting you know that she is in town to pour her sound of red music in everyone's ear. René Marie's control of her voice is amazing and this first song allows her to tempt the listener into the world her album creates.The second track "If you were mine" Is a nice upbeat tune. She paints a wonderful picture of how great life would be for some lucky guy if only she was hers. I like John Chin's solo. His light walking across the upper octave is wonderful to hear.The third track "Go Home" is a slow burning smoldering pot of emotions. A woman telling a man that he just needs to go home to his wife before it is too late. She captures all the conflicting emotions people feel when they feel a strong attraction with the wrong person. The hard point between what your heart and body wants and what your spirit knows in right.Elias Bailey starts off track 4 with a nice funky bass line that sets the pace for a quick moving tale of how a lady feels when see find herself lost. Then René Marie describes how relating to a person who is lost is a confusing and troubling experience. Elias Bailey, John Chin, and Quentin Baxter quickly trade licks and they paint this picture of the path you take when you are lost, then they come together to take on the further adventures in this lost world. This is longest track and you should really listen to it in the dark with your eyes closed so you can let your mind roam through the mysterious lost world this song paints.Track 5 - Stronger Than You Think gives the feeling that a wise elder is passing the keys to discovering the power within to a young disciple. Bailey and Baxter lay down this warm layer of rhythms that let's René Marie's voice dance around.Romero Lubambo's guitar sets the mood for track 6 as we visit Certaldo Italy. A wonderful place that makes you become a person you never thought you were. One who dances, embraces the romance of the city and "falls that wonderful fall"On one of the many times I have seen René Marie, I heard her tell how she was on a boat ride down the Colorado River and the joy of the moment brought this song to her. As she improvised the song, her fellow travelers in the boat said she should record this song. Well she did and you can hear the joy she was feeling at that moment. It is the joy one feels when you suddenly discover new vistas in your life.Track 8 has a churchy feel that is subtle and sets the background for this testimony. The song tells the tell of family members who are suffering from mental illness. It makes you see people who are mentally ill through the eyes of their family members who know them as more than the crazy person on the street or that lady that keeps going back to an abuser. This is nice song that should ring in all our ears.René Marie's starts Many Years Ago A cappella. Her voice takes you back in time to your childhood and the joy you had as a child. The words of this song will pull at least one memory up from your early years. Mine was "the loud hard bang of that old screen door". Listen to this with someone you grew up with and you will smile and remember.Track 10 picks up the pace as we travel to South Africa and learn how jazz is loved and appreciated there. You can see the joy the music generated and this will make you want to get up and shake your tail feathers to this happy beat.Finally, René Marie gives the benediction in "Blessings". You have visited this land where all the buildings are painted by the sound of red. You have traveled many places and seen the world through new eyes. So Ms. René Marie send us off with her blessings and the sound of red flowing through your veins.