When One2One Network asked if I wanted to review Joshua Bell’s new album, At Home with Friends, I said yes but only because the playlist included Kristin Chenoweth. I’m in awe of her many talents and thought, “Well, if she’s on here, certainly the rest of the album will be somewhat decent.”

Somewhat decent doesn’t even begin to describe the rest of the album.

If you’re unfamiliar with Joshua Bell, he is a violinist. Perhaps when you think of the violin, you think of classical music. Perhaps you think, “That’s not my style.” While I personally love classical music as I was raised on it and sang it through college, I want you to know that this album is not just one classical song after another. There’s a great mix of genres and styles, all with Bell playing his finest. The title of the album and my previous mention of Chenoweth should let you know that he also invites some vocalists and other musicians to join him for some very unique collaborations. I was blown away by quite a few of these amazing pieces.

The track list looks like this:

I Loves You Porgy featuring Chris Botti, trumpet
Come Again featuring Sting, vocals
Oblivion featuring Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Cinema Paradiso featuring Josh Groban, vocals
Para Tí featuring Tiempo Libre, various
My Funny Valentine featuring Kristin Chenoweth, vocals
Maybe So featuring Edgar Meyer Sam Bush and Mike Marshall, strings
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 featuring Sergei Rachmaninoff (Zenph re-performance)
Eleanor Rigby featuring Frankie Moreno, piano & vocals
O, Cease Thy Maiden Fair featuring Nathan Gunn, baritone
Il Postino featuring Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Left Hand Song featuring Regina Spektor, piano & vocals
Chovendo Na Roseira featuring Dave Grusin, piano
Look Away featuring Edgar Meyer, bass and Chris Thile, mandolin
Variant Moods: Duet for Sitar & Violin featuring Anoushka Shankar, sitar
I’ll Take Manhattan featuring Marvin Hamlisch, piano
Left Hand featuring Regina Spektor, vocals

I have to say that I did love Chenoweth’s rendition of “My Funny Valentine.” Her range is outstanding. Furthermore, my other favorite on the album was the beautiful version of “Elanor Rigby.” In fact, the boys also love this song. Which brings me to my next point: TheBrothers like this CD. I’ll be honest when I say that they have very eclectic music tastes (everything from jazz to the 80’s to apparently now a random mix of classical) because we are constantly playing random styles of music in this house, day in and day out. I love that they now ask for “that violin guy” on occasion in the car. I happily play it for them. Have you ever heard an almost four year old pretend to be a violin? It is love.

If you’re interested in this album, you can check out Joshua Bell’s official website or become a fan on Facebook. Or you could win a copy here on Stop, Drop & Review. How do you enter?

1. Leave a comment as to which song you think would be your favorite on the album. You may do this once.

2. Tweet this giveaway by copy/pasting this into your twitter stream: Win the new Joshua Bell album, At Home with Friends: http://bit.ly/26vfrv (via @FireMom) – You may do this as many times as your twitter followers will allow without becoming disgruntled.

3. Post about this giveaway on your public blog, linking to this post. Come back and leave me the URL to your post so that I’m sure to catch it. You may do this once.

The give away will be live through Monday, November 2, 2009 at noon. I will contact the winner via email. If the winner does not respond within 24 hours, I will pull a new winner. Album will be shipped from contact, not me.

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[I received a complimentary copy of this album in exchange for my honest review.]