Review of Ready to Receive
by Richard Mekdeci

Fans of Sue Riley and her music will be thrilled with her latest CD, Ready to Receive.
With a bevy of top notch co-writers and smooth, crisp production from Daniel Nahmod, listeners will get a beautiful variety of ballads, chants, pop, country, and R&B songs with catchy melodies and hooks. The messages range from personal to personal transformation, from finding your dreams to finding your true love.

Each song is a co-write with some of the planet’s best writers; Sloan Wainwright, JD Martin, Jan Garrett, Tom Kimmel, Daniel Nahmod, Freebo and others. This collaboration has given Ready to Receive a stunning variety of styles and messages that hold your attention and keep you wondering what’s next.

Ready to Receive is a family album of sorts with lots of pictures and biographical messages about Sue’s tight-knit family and letting go of her dear mom Pat. (Memory Makers with Jan Garrett and Living In My Heartland, with Claudia Carawan)

Opening with the haunting chant and title song, Ready To Receive (with Sloan and Melinda Wood Allen), the listener will journey with Sue through the search for self, (My Heart’s Desire and Let the Magic In with JD Martin), the search for true love (Here I am with Jan Garrett and Love For All We’re Worth with Tom Kimmel), and a personal travel log with the humorous, Hallways of Galway (with Daniel Nahmod )

The overall texture of the album rises and falls, peaking in the middle with the edgy country rockin’, Step Back, Slow Down, and then returning on track 14 to reprise the hypnotizing title cut. The general tone of the album however is gentle, upbeat, heartfelt and most of all, deeply personal.

Join Sue on her journey of transformation. You’ll feel you’ve made a new friend and be inspired to boot.

Reviewed by Richard Mekdeci