10/16/2006 - BEST SONGWRITER / CITY LINK BEST OF 2006
On her latest CD, Wonderlight, Ward pens tunes that are so damn hummable you'll find yourself whistling the choruses while standing in line at Publix. The presidential elections, heightened hurricane activity and the war in Iraq have all been on the Hollywood-based singer-songwriter's mind, contributing to the jumble of emotions expressed on Wonderlight. "I can't stop the war/I can't stop thinking about the ruin," she sings on "Messed Up," which was written with old friends Jim Baumann and Jonelle Raspa. The politics of love is also described in "This Love Is Hard": "We held it out in the wide open, and it blazed a path to ruin/Now, your best friend is a song on the radio, and I'm holding hands with my lover the moon." Yet even with all the turmoil of the past few years, Ward remains hopeful. Heed her advice on the lovely, waltz-time rocker "Julie": "And if you're somewhere on the freeway and you can't see to the end/Julie, pool your heart and just glide … Everything is gonna be all right."

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