Applewood Road - Applewood Road

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A terrific album

This is terrific.  I was already a big fan of the work of both Amy Speace and Emily Barker and this album, with third member the excellent Amber Rubarth, is something special from three very fine singer-songwriters in their own right.

The music here is thirteen very fine, varied songs written by the members of the band either together or individually.  They range from the lovely, atmospheric title track and Home Fires, through beautiful love songs like Give Me Love, the sensational, almost anthemic I'm Not Afraid Any More to good ol' Country stompers like Lovin' Eyes which just make me smile every time I hear them. 

It's excellent material, brilliantly performed.  The three members sing in beautiful close harmony with minimal backing – usually just an acoustic guitar or banjo with occasional other instruments.  It's excellently judged and is effectively live, with the three of them (and a few guest musicians occasionally) around a single analogue microphone, recorded onto analogue tape.  This gives a lovely, warm, spontaneous feel to the whole thing.  It doesn't have the gloss and sometimes insincere sheen of a high-tech modern recording, and the voices aren’t always absolutely perfectly balanced, but it has an intimacy and a genuineness which I love – and the musicianship is superb.

I have seen Applewood Road perform live and they are stunningly good – as well as being natural and very engaging.  If you get the chance, do go and see them because it's a delightful and musically brilliant experience.  This album captures much of that, and I can recommend it very warmly indeed.  It's a real gem.