LISA SANDERS: Essential CD

Time sure flies. Clear evidence: Lisa Sanders, one the treasures of San Diego’s roots music scene, has released a CD to mark 20 years since her breakthrough with the release of her 1996 album, Isn’t Life Fine. The new disc is a career retrospective with many of the highlights from her six other releases, through 2014’s Shiver. The bonus is that there are 18 strong tracks, and though a dozen picked by fans are the result of an online contest, there are other tracks from individual albums, and a few from TV and film releases.

Sanders is a songwriter who can put together songs that span styles (all of these are her originals), and the new disc, Essential CD, demonstrates this. One constant is the sweet harmony that she and backup partner Karen Hayes add to the tunes, whether the genre is country-influenced Americana or more elaborate, rock-oriented pop. Sanders has that double gift of possessing great pipes and the knack to write a catchy song to use them on.

“Queen of My Castle” leads off the collection, one of Sanders’ signature songs and like many of her others it is a churning rocker with some country blood that gives Sanders a chance to take a fierce and firm stand as a woman in command of her destiny: “To no one else I give my domain.” One of her loveliest songs is “Butterflies,” with a softer rhythm and floating harmonies, she tells a personal memoir of experiences with a lover over a period of years. Sanders includes “This House” on the anthology, a good, catchy choice with a hummable chorus, and lots of great harmony.

“Tell Me Daddy” is different, a bluesy flavor to her song that is a message from a daughter to a dad with a problem, “You’ve got the world on your shoulders/ So have a drink or two/ There’s nothin’ wrong with surviving/ But who takes care of you?” It’s a highlight that grabs the listener emotionally. Sanders has a number of first person love songs, and this disc is overflowing with superbly written and recorded examples: “Truly Divine” is a simple and effective mid-tempo pop winner. “Stars” is almost playful, as clever guitar figures lead the way, the chorus sings “all I want is you.”  Another Sanders standby, “Shiver,” tells of her many accomplishments-and her weakness in the presence of her lover.

“Love Love Love” doesn’t appear on any of her albums, and it is a lighter-than-air arrangement that clicks. Late in the program “You Take Me There” appears, and Sanders is more down to Earth, “Oh, the fool that I am, I’ll stay right here with you.” A sunnier outlook carries the upbeat “That’s How I Feel About You” which is yet another infectiously catchy pop offering-on a disc full of them.

There are 71 minutes of good songs on Lisa Sanders Essential CD, which is a great sampler of her music and a very good listen.