Tony Wray: Fashioning Disney tunes as well-crafted on their own terms as the originals
By David McGee
A DREAM IS A WISH: A SPECIAL ACOUSTIC TRIBUTE to the MAGIC KINGDOM
Tony Wray & Tim Crouch
Pinecastle Records
Seems like only yesterday when Tony Wray and Tim Crouch surprised us in nice way with their mellow guitar-and-fiddle (mostly) collaboration on 10 children’s songs every bit as evocative and soothing as its title, Acoustic Lullaby, suggests. In fact it was only this past May when the duo’s first collaboration was released, only to be followed this past September by another 10-song gem lovingly celebrating outstanding songs from the Disney catalogue over the years. It’s still Wray (guitar and banjo) and Crouch (fiddle) on every tune save “Cruella De Ville” from 1961’s 101 Dalmations, transformed into a leisurely, bluesy instrumental driven by Crouch’s tuneful, countrified fiddling given additional subtle support from Dana Farnsworth on piano and Les Stroud on harmonica, with both taking expressive solos along the way, Stroud especially standing out by bobbing and weaving around the melody line between succinct guitar and fiddle dialogue.
‘Bare Necessities,’ written by Terry Gilkyson for the 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book. With lead vocals by Quillan and Kim Roe, Jim Denman and Tony Wray, Wray & Crouch’s A Dream is a Wish: A Special Acoustic Tribute to the Magic Kingdom
The original version of ‘Bare Necessities,’ from Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967). Vocals by the incomparable Phil Harris and Bruce Reitherman. From Wray & Crouch’s A Dream is a Wish: A Special Acoustic Tribute to the Magic Kingdom
‘A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,’ from 1950’s Cinderella, written by Al Hoffman-Mack David-Jerry Livingston, lead vocal by Fae Roe, from Wray & Crouch’s A Dream is a Wish: A Special Acoustic Tribute to the Magic Kingdom
In contrast to Acoustic Lullaby, A Dream is a Wish features several fetching vocal performances. To this task Wray and Crouch have summoned six solid vocalists, including one genuine bluegrass legend in Dale Ann Bradley. Ms. Bradley makes a grand appearance with a tender take on “Baby Mine,” from the 1941 Dumbo animated classic. Written by Frank Churchill and Ned Washington (lyrics) to accompany a poignant scene of young Dumbo trying to connect with his mother, who’s jailed in a circus carriage marked “Mad Elephant,” it’s rendered in the film by Betty Noyes, whose career included dubbing vocals for non-singing stars in several major feature films, including Camelot, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, White Christmas, and most memorably, as the singing voice of Debbie Reynolds in Singin’ In the Rain in addition to acting roles in 1965’s Cinderella and in a 1956 episode of I Love Lucy (“Lucy Goes to Scotland”), Her pleasant pop voice, similar to that of Frances Langford, perfectly captured the heart tugging blend of love and sadness in the Dumbo scene, as it called for, whereas Ms. Bradley’s earthier voice, soothing and warm, enhances the song’s lullaby pentimento. Elsewhere, Fae Roe, a versatile singer from Minnesota’s acclaimed Roe Family Singers, offers a perky take on “Put It Together: Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo,” from the 1950 Cinderella (written by Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston and. Mack David, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song), with upbeat support from fiddle and banjo bringing it to the country side but with a sing-song feel that would have been perfect on one of those children’s records on the Peter Pan label back in the day; she returns later sounding a smidgen bluesy on a rustic version of the title track, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” (an oft-recorded evergreen from 1950’s Cinderella again courtesy the combined pens of Hoffman-Livingston-David), with her sweet vocal riding gently over warm, sensitive guitar-and-fiddle support.
‘Baby Mine,’ written by Frank Churchill and Ned Washington (lyrics) for the 1941 Dumbo animated classic. Lead vocal by Dale Ann Bradley, Tony Wray on guitar, Tim Crouch, fiddle, from Wray & Crouch’s A Dream is a Wish: A Special Acoustic Tribute to the Magic Kingdom
The original version ‘Baby Mine,’ from Dumbo (1941), written by Frank Churchill and Ned Washington, sung by Betty Noyes, who dubbed Debbie Reynolds’s singing voice in Singin’ in the Rain. From A Dream is a Wish: A Special Acoustic Tribute to the Magic Kingdom
‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,’ from Song of the South (1946), with lead vocal by Dennis Parker, with Tim Crouch on fiddle. From Wray & Crouch’s A Dream is a Wish: A Special Acoustic Tribute to the Magic Kingdom
Things get more down-home bluegrassy on “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” (from Song of the South in 1946 and subsequently covered by artists of many stripes, from Johnny Mercer & the Pied Pipers to the Dave Clark Five to Louis Armstrong (on his terrific, underrated 1966 album of Disney classics, Disney the Satchmo Way) and, most famously, by Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans in the 1963 Wall of Sound production by Phil Spector. Here’s yet another iteration for the books, this being a feisty bluegrass rendition with lead vocalist Dennis Parker presumably accompanied by Wray and Crouch in tight, mountain harmony and some lively fiddling by Crouch along with Wray’s steady banjo. “Bare Necessities” (from 1967’s The Jungle Book, written by Terry Gilkyson and sung in the film by the incomparable Phil Harris and Bruce Reitherman) edges into western swing territory in its rhythmic thrust featuring Crouch’s long, lean fiddle lines, as a quartet of vocalists-Quillan and Kim Roe, Jim Denman and Tony Wray-hint at the pop feel of Bob Wills and the McKinney Sisters.
‘Supercalifragelisticexpialidocious,’ written by the Sherman Brothers for Mary Poppins (1964), done bluegrass style from Wray & Crouch’s A Dream is a Wish: A Special Acoustic Tribute to the Magic Kingdom
The album’s big finish comes in two parts: the penultimate track, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” dreamy as ever, finds Sarah Logan channeling Elizabeth Cook in her plaintive mountain tones as Crouch and Wray provide a romantic, woodsy backdrop-all the better to set up a freewheeling, raucous reconfiguring of “Supercalifragelisticexpialidocious” at lightning speed-fiddle, mandolin, guitar and banjo simply going for it with impunity to bring another Wray & Crouch project to a celebratory close. You don’t have to love Disney or have a lifetime’s affection for these songs to find yourself in thrall to these faithful but often adventurous interpretations, all as well-crafted on their own terms as the originals. Outstanding work all around-no goofy exercise, this.
