CDs let you listen to what your favorite artist listens to

By Robert Hilburn
Los Angeles Times

Hear Music's "Artist's Choice" CD series gives us a chance to approximate that experience — a rare example in the record business of an idea that works as well in practice as it does in theory.

In putting together the series, representatives of the Seattle record label and retail store chain (which is owned by Starbucks) ask artists for 16 or so recordings that inspired or touched them. The answers are then put on discs.

Besides CDs devoted to the choices of Williams, the Rolling Stones and Charles, there are discs showcasing the favorites of Sheryl Crow and Yo-Yo Ma. A Tony Bennett disc is coming out this week, and a Johnny Cash edition in the fall.

There is also a sense of the artists' enthusiasm in the discs, some of which are sold in Starbucks and all of which are available on the Hear Music Web site (www.hearmusic.com).

Listening to Charles' choices, you can picture the marvelous soul singer's excitement at first hearing such vocals as Nat King Cole's immaculately phrased "Sweet Lorraine" or the stylish gospel of the Swan Silvertones' "Mary Don't You Weep."

It's interesting to see some choices overlap — both Charles and Crow pick tunes by Aretha Franklin and Willie Nelson, while Williams and Crow both cite Adams.