For those types of songs to work the singer has to be able to sell it to the audience. They involve a lot more work than just standing up and making sure you sing in tune and on key. A singer has to be willing to perform the song like she was acting a role on stage, (hence the term "show tune" even if they aren't associated with a play), in order for it to work. To be able to carry a tune like that off as Candye does is an amazing in and of itself. The fact that she also wrote the lyrics to work with the music is even more of an accomplishment.
It's an unfortunate reality that most ballads or slow songs today are ruined by the lack of sincerity in the performer's presentation. They swoop their voices up and down the scales with no real attention to what they're doing other than trying to distract the audience with vocal pyrotechnics. On "I Could Fall For You" Candye shows them how it should be done, worrying more about the content of the song and ensuring the lyrics are sung with genuine feeling when it matters instead of beating them to death with a stick for the length and breadth of the song.
Of course she can also cut loose with the best of them, and on her barrelhouse type numbers like "Misunderstood" or her cover of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's "I Wanna Be More" it's impossible not to get caught up in her enthusiasm for the music and the song. Speaking of covers, she takes the old John Sebastian tune "What A Day For A Daydream" and makes it her own while preserving the original whimsy.
It's not often that we get performers anymore who have the combination of ability and strength of personality to carry off the types of songs and music that Candye Kane performs. Pick up a copy of White Trash Girl and be pleasantly surprised by what you hear, and how much you enjoy it. There's a lot more to this girl than just one dimension of the blues.
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