Stoney End - BARBRA STREISAND*****

I Don't Know Where I Stand/Hands Off The Man/If You Could Read My Mind/Just A Little Lovin'/Let Me Go/ Stoney End/No Easy Way Down/Time & Love/Maybe/Free The People/I'll Be Home

Stoney End marks a turning point for songstress Barbra Streisand as she casts aside her traditional standards and show tunes repertoire to embrace a more modern sound. The title track was a US No. 6 hit single. (US:10 UK:28)

“This is probably the first really good album Barbra Streisand made. I'm not really a lover of her big show tune numbers which had dominated most of her 60s output. Here the sound is contemporary, marking a new phase in Streisand's recording.”

“A very important album for Barbra Streisand as she moved into pop music and left Broadway behind her. She had enormous success in previous decade on stage and in musicals but at the dawn on 1970s and Woodstock happening around her, she left musicals and turned her interest to contemporary composers and songwriters.”

“If you like the big, dramatic Barbra Streisand, then Stoney End probably isn't the album for you. She's a little subdued on this record, a little rural even. Streisand plays it down home on Stoney End. For the most part, the songs she's selected are straight-forward affairs, no big emotional moments or anything.”

“Stoney End is so unique because for once Barbra leaves behind her supper club/show tunes material and takes a relaxed approach interpreting folk and pop...and to what effect. All tracks are wonderfully subdued and laid back, and yet they still bear that stamp of vocal power that has always been her calling card.”

“This LP is one of the rare moments in Streisand's recording career when she seems relaxed, free and not constantly second-guessing herself and her singing. A definite must for those who love Streisand's voice, phrasing and diction, but who often tire of her endless renditions of ballads and show tunes drowned in meticulous precision.”

“Barbra Streisand arrived as a credible contemporary artist with the release of this satisfying landmark album. Stoney End is the song responsible for breaking Barbra out of the conservative mould as a singer of ‘yesterday's songs’ into a great singer of songs of any kind with no boundaries which allowed Barbra to grow artistically by leaps and bounds.”