Frank Dain
I’ve Had a Love
March 23, 2025
Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach
Frank Dain lets his deepest emotions flow freely through 16 love songs on I’ve Had a Love, his second album, which is dedicated to his late husband Bill Sensenbrenner. Dain, editor of Cabaret Scenes Magazine, expresses exquisite passion in the songs he sings—and for the partner he loved, who died in 2021—in a fully realized tribute, using his deeply resonant baritone to get to the essence of each selection.
The themes of love and loss are clearly evident throughout the 53-minute CD, particularly on its simplest cut, “A Certain Smile” (Paul Francis Webster/Sammy Fain), in which a listener hears Dain’s deepest feelings coming to the surface. While most of the CD’s songs include backing from four or five instruments, “A Certain Smile” uses only piano accompaniment. Here it’s a Fender Rhodes piano, which produces a variety of sounds and features Dain’s longtime musical collaborator Kathleen Landis on keys.
Dain’s emotions are particularly on display during “(In a Very) Unusual Way” (Maury Yeston), where one can almost hear a tear in his voice, and in “Sleepy Man” (Alfred Uhry/Robert Waldman, from The Robber Bridegroom). Here, Gary Schreiner’s harmonica adding poignance to the tender vocal.
The CD makes effective use of several musicians, who set up a variety of moods in their individual introductions for each song, including Schreiner on accordion during Dain’s haunting reading of “Whistling Away the Dark” (Johnny Mercer/Henry Mancini), Jack Bashkow on saxophone on the bluesy “No One Ever Tells You” (Carroll Coates/Hub Atwood), and Peter Calo on guitar during Dain’s tender take on “It’s a New World” (Ira Gershwin/Harold Arlen).
Other selections include Dain’s warm, passionate “Embraceable You” (George and Ira Gershwin), a mellifluous “But Beautiful” (Johnny Burke/Jimmy Van Heusen), a bright “Let’s Fall in Love” (Ted Koehler/Arlen), and a joyous “Hello, Young Lovers” (Rodgers & Hammerstein).
The CD ends on a note of hope with the sublime “Some Other Time” (Leonard Bernstein/Betty Comden & Adolph Green).
