Rating: 4/5
Review:
A lovely album
This is a lovely disc.
I saw Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker supporting Richard Thompson
recently and was impressed enough to try their album; I'm very glad I did.
This could be described as modern folk music with Josienne's
voice and Ben's guitar well to the fore.
There is some occasional subtle added instrumentation and the effect is
lovely. Josienne has a very beautiful
voice and really knows how to use it to put a song across; she has an excellent
balance of emotion and restraint which gives every number a real meaning. Ben is a very fine guitarist who is
thoughtful, imaginative and very skilful in his work, so the combination of the
two of them produces something rather special in places, I think.
The material is thoughtful with a tendency to melancholy,
which is fine by me, but I do think it could do with a little more variation in
emotional tone. On stage, Josienne has a
very engaging dry wit in her introductions and I'd like to see a little more of
that shine through the music.
Nonetheless, this is an album of good songs, very well performed and I
can recommend it warmly.
No comments:
Post a Comment