His choice of simplicity for this piece was highly unusual, since it deviated from his style at the time and brought back the simple harmonies that he had utilized in his earlier musical compositions, which were more traditional.
Thus, the question is not whether Palmer has very good vocal capabilities. It is a matter of whether her music at this point can stand toe to toe with the more prolific urban vocal talent hitting the charts today.
He undertook other work with Larry Birdsong and Honey Brown. His versatility led to employment as part of the studio band for Vee-Jay Records, with Red Holloway and Vernel Fournier, among others. Most of the musicians there had earlier worked for Chance Records, backing Jimmy Reed and the Spaniels.
One summer morning Aidan and Sarah, who are visiting their grandfather, discover a secret compartment in his battered wooden desk. Inside is a yellowed envelope that contains a piece of very thin, almost translucent, white paper, on which, handwritten in black ink, are a series of seemingly random lines; among them are what appear to be fragments of letters, but not enough to make sense.
Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post remarked on Russell’s skill, noting how in any other hands, the adaptation of Matthew Quick’s novel would be the stuff of banal rom-com fluff or, perhaps worse, self-consciously quirky indie cliches.