Tonya Hairston Ware – The Voice

Tonya Hairston Ware
The Voice
Tonya Ware 2007
www.tonyaware.com

Although she has been singing since the tender age of six, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that Tonya Hairston Ware plunged headlong into recording her debut CD, The Voice.

Tonya possesses a big voice, but she isn’t a shouting singer, nor does she belt like a Broadway doyenne. Like Shania Twain, Faith Hill and especially Gloria Estefan, Tonya defies categorization, transcending music genres with her pleasant, engaging style. Her skill is certainly the combination of innate talent, a commitment to voice lessons, persistent vocal study and choir membership at her alma mater, Mississippi State University.

As a result, The Voice is a parade of lithe, melodic praise and worship songs made brighter by Tonya’s airy, smooth pop vocals, which owe as much to RnB as to CCM and smooth jazz. The opening track, “None Like You” is high energy and an ideal lead-off performance. The album’s loveliest melodies can be heard on “You Came,” “Higher,” and “Rain.” In fact, the mid-tempo, relaxed “Rain” has just been released as the album’s second single, a follow-up to the hit, “Put My Hand in Yours.” “Rain” is as good an example as any of Tonya’s style.

Another audience pleaser is “Awesome in this Place” because it showcases Tonya in full P&W mode, pacing the stage in breathless exclamation of praise and encouragement. It is during moments like this when Tonya demonstrates an uncanny ability to cram more syllables into one bar of music than seems possible.

A big voice needs a strong background group, and Tonya has it in five background vocalists who, together, have the volume and intensity of a full choir.

It makes sense that Tonya closes The Voice with a “Hymn Medley.” Her voice is ideally suited for hymns because she can really draw out a melody. This “bonus track” is satisfying and could have been even longer, with several more hymns added to the medley.

Although self-produced, The Voice garnered enough attention to earn the singer a 2009 Stellar nomination for “Contemporary Female Artist of the Year.” In 2008, she received a “Jackie” for National Female Soloist of the Year from the Mississippi Gospel Music Association.

To some, Tonya Hairston Ware is co-founder, with husband Pastor Adrian Ware, of Church Triumphant in Ridgeland, Mississippi. To others, she is a successful HR executive with a Fortune 500 company. To her fans, she is The Voice. The proof of this label is in the listening.

Three and a Half of Four Stars