John Hartley has one of those deep yet soft and easy voices that I can listen to time and
again. Hailing right here in my own home state of Ohio, I had to find out about him on the
net, but oh, what a find.
John has been playing the guitar since he was ten years
old and won a sixth grade talent show with the Country song "Buffalo Gals".
It was just in the last two years that he decided to start a Recording career in Country
Music.
He recorded his first release for radio in October,1997
with Sonic Records. The song titled, "Look at me Girl" was released in January
1998 and remained on the charts for nine months. This resulted in John receiving the
Trailblazer award in Nashville TN. from Airplay International in September 1998. He also
received two nominations from Nashville Tracker for that single.
John's second release for radio in December, 1998 was
"Walk Slow" with Cabin Creek Records. Both of these songs along with 8 more
tracks compile John Hartley's album entitled, "Pure Love".
While listening to this album, I not only appreciated
the wonderful songs John chose to sing, which fit him well, but his smooth easy delivery
of a song without feeling the need to drown it with the background music. "The Most
Beautiful Rose", a most beautiful love song, is a great example of this. This
standard remains as you move on to the 2-steppin', "Where Did You Learn to Love Like
That".
All told, "Pure Love" is purely a very good
country album with a mixture of traditional and modern country....but ALL country, ALL the
way.
