River Of Dreams - The Very Best Of Hayley Westenra

this is a great cd. the delivery was great and I love the music

Item is has expected,good.

I came round to Hayley Westenra via a very obscure route. One of the saturday paper supplements had a 'what ever happened to ...' feature and this week it was Neil Reid who had a hit in the early 70s with 'Mother of Mine'. I checked Youtube and sure enough it was there but also listed was another version by a singer called Hayley Westenra. To say I was knocked out by Hayley's version would be an understatement (incidently her version is on an album of Japanese songs Vol 2 I think - it costs a fortune!).I spent an evening running through Hayley's various performances and wondered how I had missed such a good singer. As for the CD it's a lovely collection showcasing both her classical credentials and a beautiful lilting voice on songs such as 'Danny Boy' and 'Shenandoah'The 'sleeve notes' feature various photos of Hayley meeting famous people and her enthusiatic and charming comments remind you just how young she is.The one black mark on this CD is a mix up with the tracks. On the version I got the printed cover and the tracks match, however pop this into your PC and the media player will tell a different story, the tracks from number 5 onwards have the wrong titles so if you rip the CD to your portable music device you will have to rename most of the tracks. I think this mix-up may have been caused by different tracks being used on the compilation in different countries. I am assuming that this error has been picked up now and future versions will be fine. In any event I won't mark the CD down for a technicality when the songs themselves are so beautifully delivered.

Great Artist 💯

Amazing voice

I wasn't really keen on getting this album at first, since I already owned other albums which contained many of the songs on this one, but after receiving the album, I was so glad I had decided to buy it!Some of the songs are real treats, like Eva Cassidy's Songbird, which Hayley covers most beautifully, or Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod), which is amazing too. Previously, I'd only heard her sing Ave Maria (Caccini) from the album Odyssey, and Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod) in English live in a lower key, at a concert in 2004 (No, I wasn't fortunate enough to be there; I watched it on YouTube). Songs like O Mio Babbino Caro and Now Is The Hour were great too. Wait, what am I saying?? The WHOLE album is amazing; I fully reccomend it for fans and for people not yet familiar with Hayley Westenra's music alike.It's a very good album to give as a gift, IMHO, if you're trying to introduce Hayley's music to someone. My only lament is that this so-called "Best Of" album does not include Dark Waltz (found on the album Pure). If you haven't heard Dark Waltz, you're missing out on something awesome. Please go listen to it on YouTube or something.

This is a really good introduction to Hayley for those who have not heard her work before and a great collection for long term fans like myself. This CD really displays Hayley's talent, it has a wide range of styles incuding folk songs such as 'Shenandoah' and 'The Water is Wide' and the immortal 'Pokarekare Ana'. It also includes covers of pop songs such as 'Both Sides Now' and an amazing duet with Andrea Bocelli 'Dell'Amore non si sa'. Hayley can really do any style she does them all really well and this CD really shows how versatile she really is. There are a few new ones on here 'Songbird' is a great Eva Cassidy cover, I love how it is arranged, kept very simple with just a piano. Also there is 'Po Atarau/Now Is The Hour' which is half maori and half english, again this is a simple, but impressive arrangement and I love to hear Hayley sing in maori.

The choice of tracks for a "best of" album is bound to be somewhat subjective and I was tempted to give this only four stars because some of my favourites are not included. However, there is a good selection from Hayley's three previous UK albums and I like them all. Also the three new songs are spellbindingly beautiful. (I hadn't realised that Now is the Hour was a Maori tune.) So I will not be putting away my other Hayley albums, but I have been listening to this one in the car. This presents two problems: the first (relatively minor) is that the tracks don't follow on in the order that I have come to expect; the second is that I find myself waiting in the car when I reach my destination to listen to "just one more track" (or two, or....). It hasn't made me late for anything yet, but there is a real danger!

How l cane across this lovely singerMy best friend was fighting cancerUntil he lost He wanted cd madeI bought $100 l tunes cardAnd he picked songs he wantedand we burned cd on my computerOne song was “ prayer”off Hayley’s“Odyssey “ album. Too much to buy on cdFound this at good price. Love itWish. “ prayer” was on it Lizard

I first discovered Hayley's music on the Celtic Woman iHeart Radio station and ended up spending quite some time on YouTube checking out more of her music. When I saw this one, I had to spring for the NZ edition with the bonus disk. Great beautiful music to listen to, some songs give me goosebumps.

Perfecto

Wer die Sängerin Hayley Westenra kennt weiß, dass sie eine unverwechselbare Stimme hat und einfach fantastisch singt. Hier gibt sie, wieder einmal ihr Können zum Besten.

Para colección, el primer original que compré