A strong, evocative, bluegrass debut.
The state of UK bluegrass music seems to be in rude health, with 2026 alone seeing around 25 festivals dedicated to this increasingly interesting genre of music. One of the latest and most interesting names to appear on the scene is Ruth Eliza, a clawhammer banjo player and singer-songwriter based in Lancaster, and she specialises in blending old-time and contemporary bluegrass and americana influences with modern British folk. She also has a very distinctive banjo style, perfectly showcased in this collection of 13 tracks: 10 songs and 3 instrumentals. On it she’s joined by a fine collection of musicians: Matthew Ord on guitar, mandolinist Tom Kimber, Swedish fiddler Adam Bulow and Eleanor Wilkie on double bass. The album contains all self-penned songs, and she’s a fine songwriter.
We open on a lovely, warm tune, the title track, which celebrates the joys of home being a safe place. Voices again brilliantly blends the banjo, the mandolin and fiddle on a song about insecurity and self-doubt, forcing the singer to ‘listen to her own voice’. Missing Out is a hoedown-style, up-tempo song which again centres around self-anxiety. The strongest song in the set is Leaving, which is all about Eliza’s roots and has a really strong, catchy tune with some wonderful guitar interplay at the start, and it slowly builds to a gloriously catchy and evocative song. Eliza’s beautiful voice perfectly brings these songs alive, somewhat reminiscent of Victoria Williams.
Where We Were Last Night is a slow, mournful tune with richly evocative lyrics around the pain of a relationship falling apart. The juxtaposition of male and female vocals on this song works really well.
This is a lovely album: assured, beautifully played by all concerned and a selection of heartfelt, very personal songs evoking so many feelings and emotions. This is an impressive collection, and here’s hoping Eliza and her fellow band members will be gracing the stages of some of the UK’s many bluegrass festivals this year – they’ll go down a storm.
