The Song, the Voices, the Sheer Beauty of It All: Tricia Countryman’s “Goin’ On” is a Beautiful Thing

Tricia Countryman with John Hunter Phillips
“Goin’ On”
from the forthcoming album Sometimes When I’m Dreaming

Review by Alan Haber

First, there is the song, a nearly perfect expression of love, as Brian Wilson might put it, getting to the heart of it; a joyous celebration of melody and harmony and the ability that one or two or three people have to summon that joyousness from their collective core and build something that will live within us always.

The melody comes from that place. It’s the melody that draws us into the song, and then there are the harmonies, the harmonies that make the hairs on the backs of our necks stand on end and push that button. You know the one–the one that makes you smile, which is payment enough, I suppose, for a musical job so very well done.

Tricia Countryman and singer John Hunter Phillips show their love for melody and harmony with their transcendent version of Brian Wilson and Mike Love’s “Goin’ On,” which originally appeared as the opening track on the Beach Boys’ Keepin’ the Summer Alive, an album teeming with delights, in 1980. Produced by Dana Countryman, these nearly four minutes of bliss stop everything around it in their tracks.

There are the voices, intertwined and perfectly matched, singing ever so sweetly together, and there are the instruments, all played by Dana, save for Mike Marinig’s muscular saxophone, and there is the arrangement, faithful to the original track but tweaked with that certain something that only an artist can bring to the table. As the song plays, you are transported to that place where all around you is still and serene. All you have to do is listen.

I love the sound of this version of “Goin’ On,” and you will too: Listen to Tricia Countryman, with John Hunter Phillips, sing this wonderful song tonight, premiering exclusively on Pure Pop Radio at 9 pm ET (6 pm PT). And listen to it after that, playing in rotation as part of our playlist of 8,500 handpicked melodic pop songs from the ’60s to today. You’ll be glad you did.

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