Low-key folk with beautiful vocals and evocative, atmospheric, sensuous words.
Laura Cortese grew up in San Francisco and discovered folk music through the fiddle camps she attended. She has toured with artists including The Mountain Goats and Aoife O’Donovan and travelled internationally as a musical ambassador for the US State Department. She moved to Belgium over a decade ago and is married with two young children. Lucky Water is her first album in six years, recorded back in the US at Betty’s studio in rural North Carolina.
It is rather sparse, still folk music, centred very much on Cortese’s beautifully clear and ringing voice. Produced by Clare Reynolds, a.k.a. LOLLIES, a muted, almost scraping guitar and what could be Cortese finger-picking a fiddle are often heard. A wide range of instruments are also on show, with, for example, LOLLIES on synth and percussion and Matt Douglas (The Mountain Goats, Hiss Golden Messenger) on harmonium, guitar, piano, saxophone, flute, and clarinet.
Cortese’s words reflect her life in Belgium and her young family, but also a sensuous delight in nature and evocative memories of her youth. The opener, Face The Rain, was written after her daughter watched the sun come through the clouds after a storm. Next, You’re All Sound, where a little echo is added nicely to the vocal, is a warm, loving song addressed to her daughter: “Sitting still, with a sly little grin/ Sneaking up to surprise you again, we’re laughing”. Hush Now Child, inspired by Belgium’s Iron Harvest, where unexploded bombs from the wars have been discovered, has protective lyrics for a child: “When the sun rises over the hill/ We’ll be safe and sound”. Half A Mile Away starts with one of these bombs found nearby, but leads to reflections on conflicts around the world and in earlier times.
Tied In A Knot has an added male vocal, a choral backing, saxophone coming in at the end and a chugging beat. Its words are unusually frank about a long-term relationship: “I know if we last long enough/ We’ll disappoint each other”, but in this way, are interesting. The relationship will last: “We’ll stay afloat when the boat begins to rock/ We’re tied in a knot”. The more vigorous Starry Ceiling, with its synthesiser, stirring chorus and sax solo, also, according to Cortese, “explores commitment and shared struggle”.
Lucky Water is a sensuous, evocative story of a family hike to the Lassen Volcanic National Park in California, which “aunts, uncles, cousins, and I have done every year since my mom was born… Each year we stop at the same spots, look for the flowers, put our feet, or full bodies, in the freezing stream”. Likewise, the low-key Calling Across The Lake, with just synth and piano, has atmospheric childhood memories: “Craggy, tall cliff/ Blue-green splash my skin/ Swim down bring rocks/ Back up from the bottom”. The closer, Adieu, Adieu, seems to be saying goodbye to summer, as winter comes: “As we give in to melancholy/ Until the swallow flies into May”. It is all conveyed most poetically.
This album, with its wonderful imagery, will appeal to those who appreciate low-key, sparse folk music with beautiful vocals.
