An album inspired by the joy of love, great relationships and fine wine is being released by Bermuda resident Lynda Barnes Lovett.

Mrs. Lovett, who is a singer/songwriter/pianist/arranger, has lived in Bermuda for two decades. She has just released her new CD, Never Say Goodbye, which is a ten track selection of new and old romantic ballads.

This new CD follows the single Christmas in Bermuda, which came out last December and featured local singer Gita Blakeney. Mrs. Lovett?s first CD, Party with No Fear was a tribute to wine and the Bermuda lifestyle in general.

Her latest album Never Say Goodbye provides romantic ballads, which have been called new old standards and are in the style of the Broadway show tunes from the 1950s and 60s, but are done in arrangements of live instruments make them timely today.

?My goal is to write melodies and lyrics that deal with human emotions in a loving way,? Mrs. Lovett said.

?Music has always helped me feel emotions in a more intense way and, when words have failed me, music has enabled me to speak. Hopefully, my new romantic ballads will blend with these classics to create a loving mix of similar musical emotions that others will enjoy.

Never Say Goodbye was produced by Jay Stocker, who is an accomplished pianist, musician and songwriter and it features Paul Brannon on guitar, Larry Brubaker on the flugelhorn, Rod Lincoln on drums, Erick Nelson on the trumpet, and Darren Rahn on sax.

Mrs. Lovett said she began working on her current album Never Say Goodbye a year-and-a-half ago. She said the inspiration for it came from a relative who was suffering from a life threatening illness.

?About 18 months ago, there had been sickness in our family and my mother was also suffering a terminal illness,? she said.

?I began thinking about losing people you love and will really miss. The idea for the title song, Never Say Goodbye, as its lyrics reveal, is about that.

?I worked on that song for a few months, and, when it was finished, I gave it to my husband as an anniversary present. Basically, this song insists that we will ?never say goodbye? to the people whom we love the most, no matter what.?

This song then led her into other areas of her life.

?Then I began thinking back to relationships from my youth that were lost,? said Mrs. Lovett, ?and about relatives and friends of mine who have had the most important relationships in their lives lost for one reason or another.

?Often, the parties involved both suffer and regret the loss. Anyway, I wrote Think of Us with this mind; it?s reflective of what might have been.?

And those thoughts led to other thoughts and other realms of relationships of importance, she said.

?For example, I have always wanted to be close, or closer, to some of my family than I am; and this led me to write Let Me Be Close To You.

?As you know, Gita Blakeney sings some of my songs and she loves this one and has already recorded an arrangement that I did for her.

?Most of us want to be closer to some people than we are, and this song admits this frankly and urges the listener to be direct and asks others to be closer than they are.?

She then began thinking about people who are lonely and who do not have someone important in their lives and she wrote Someone Who Matters.

She then thought about people who seem to find ?the wrong person? in the eyes of others, however right that person may be.

?This led me to write, Opinions of Others,? she said. ?It could be about any couple that others judge as not a ?proper? fit, and my point was and is that other people?s opinions aren?t that important; it?s what makes it work for the individuals involved, as long as they?re not hurting anyone else.

?The song urges people to have the courage of their convictions; the ?opinions of others? are really the problem of those ?others?.?

Her last original song on the album is entitled Wino.

?This is a spoof, a satire, about the pretensions and excesses of the wine connoisseurs,? she said.

?I included it here, first because of its bluesy jazzy feel ? it?s an arrangement which seemed to fit with songs like Scotch and Soda and Opinions of Others, and also I wanted to lighten-up the mood of the CD for its ending.?

The four cover songs It?s Magic, Where Can I Go, You?ve Changed and Scotch and Soda were chosen because she has been asked to do them by friends for many years.

Of the album, Mrs. Lovett said: ?In summary, this album is about human relationships.

?I?ve attempted to do it in the style of the old, standard romantic ballads of long ago. I?m in an informal group of independent songwriters called Songlutions, and we pool our thoughts and try to help each other.

?Songlutions urged us to do websites and offer our songs there; so, I have www.lyndalovett.com, but my real satisfaction comes simply from doing the songs and playing them for those who like romantic ballads in the old style. My reward is simply doing it.?

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