“One Day At A Time” is the new single from Miami-born and Brooklyn-based songstress Janna Pelle. This is taken from her acclaimed “Key Change” album which charts the evolution of keyboard-based instruments through each song. Janna was inspired to film and create her new video for “One Day At A Time”, by the words her dad spoke before his death from rare blood cancer MDS – “I was grateful for what I could do now, not disappointed for what I could no longer do.” Janna Pelle’s music resonates with me. Why?
Her songs are written from a place we all come from. The lyrics and the words she uses, and her phrasing, hits me as being uncontrived, effortless, spontaneous. There is a naturalness in the manner she moves move from one key change to the next. The imagery and language she uses will make you appreciate the poet in her. More importantly, her voice and artistry seem to flow from the heart first and then from the mind.
Janna’s vocal styling is also like no other contemporary singer; her phrasing is never the same twice, and highly intentional in their inter-playing with the rhythm and melody, always perfectly executed to carry the lyric and the song. The result is an inexplicable timelessness to her melodies.
“One Day At A Time” is beautiful and full of such raw emotion that it seeps into your bones and walks with you through the days. You won’t be able to resist as it sweeps you up in her thoughts and feelings in such an intense way. The song will induce you to feel, when maybe you are afraid to confront all the highs and lows of a human heart living with the fear of lapsing time in this world we have built for ourselves.
The music video of “One Day At A Time”, presents us with intertwining scenes of a younger woman dancing ballet in her prime and an older woman performing complex yoga movements in a moment of peaceful concentration. These visual clips are meant to bring us to confront the passage of time, and truly be grateful for what can do now. The guiding hand of the audiovisual artistry here helps make you remember why life is worth living in each of its phases.
I cannot express enough that her dynamic control, variety of sounds, and appropriateness of inflection to lyric interpretation is on a whole different level than most of the popular singing of today. This truly is an essential part in setting her apart from her peers and contemporaries. Janna’s songwriting, her musicianship and her so-expressive voice obviously go hand-in-hand to strengthen her artistic equation. All of which she superbly forges on “One Day At A Time”.
Janna Pelle has taken her craft to the next level. Her songs are so nuanced and it’s clear she is figuring out the effects of love, life and death, and where she fits into it all. We’re just lucky she’s doing this through her music, so we can join her on the journey, while figuring out our own personal dilemmas.
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