An album drenched in the roots music of the americana genre, delivering a freshness to both original and traditional tunes.
Kate MacLeod’s recording career spans over thirty years, either solo or in collaboration with artists such as Kat Eggleston, The Pancakes, and most recently, Mind the Gap. In 2009, none other than Tim O’Brien produced her excellent album Blooming, which featured an all-star band including Darrell Scott, Byron House and the late Kenny Malone. In addition, her original instrumental pieces have proved to be well-suited to film soundtracks and documentaries. When not performing, MacLeod teaches songwriting and fiddle workshops at Schools, summer camps, and music festivals, whilst her musical prowess, both as a vocalist and on fiddle, guitar and Appalachian lap dulcimer, has seen her work regularly with other artists.
This new release, attributed to Kate MacLeod’s Mind the Gap and titled Home-Brewed, offers six new songs from MacLeod and the band, plus two carefully chosen cover versions. The opening number, I Was Singing My Heart Out, epitomises much of the album’s ethos, establishing an emotional and musical foundation that sounds immediate and timeless in equal measure, fiddle and mandolin supporting MacLeod’s exquisite vocals as she caresses the poetic storytelling that revolves around the lyric “because your troubled heart can’t hear my words, I will sing them to you”. Elsewhere, warm harmonies evoke the Virginia countryside on “Never Looked So Good To Me Before,” where Matthew Metz again excels on mandolin. In contrast, the lilting edge of MacLeod’s fiddle helps create a Celtic ambience to the instrumental tune The Moon and Mount Rainier.
Of the two cover versions, the first pays homage to the bluegrass legend Kenny Baker with his instrumental Cross-Eyed Fiddler/Denver Belle, while guitarist Paul Hammerton takes lead vocals on a delightful rendition of Utah Phillips’ The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia, ably supported on harmony by MacLeod that brings a subtle sweetness to this melancholy classic.
A possible contender for album highlight is the song Sometimes A Sound that finds MacLeod’s vocals inhabiting a late-sixties hippie-folk vibe similar to early Joni Mitchell, a musical leaning helped by the addition of guest vocalist Maya Collins on harmony and Dylan Schorer on acoustic guitar. Good Old Virginia draws on Hammerton’s close connection to the land and his life in a historic station house, before the third instrumental, The Old Charles Town Pike, closes the album. Led by some delightful rustic fiddle playing from MacLeod and featuring Metz on banjo, the tune, with its subtle change of pace, deceptively captures the twists and turns of West Virginia’s historic highway.
Despite Home-Brewed being the first full-length release from Kate MacLeod’s Mind the Gap, the album oozes with high-quality musicianship, delivering a collection of songs and tunes with an integrity that only comes from those steeped in the history of roots music, and is a highly enjoyable debut offering.
