Songs on surviving life from an accomplished singer-songwriter, with hints of jazz amongst the folk rock accompaniment.
Jenny Reynolds is a singer-songwriter, initially from Boston but now firmly a part of the Texas scene for the last 20 years. This is her fifth full-length album since her first was released in 1998. However, there was a significant gap between album three and four whilst she nursed her wife for twelve years through an incurable and sadly fatal illness. Her fourth album, Any Kind Of Angel, was well received, and it has been a further six years for this release. In that time she has found love, remarried and, as she puts it, gone from living alone with a hound for company, to a chaotic but loving family. This has definitely influenced the writing. The title comes from the lyrics of If I Hadn’t Waited So Long; “Strong as a willow, Weak as a stone”, reflecting on how flexibility and bending rather than breaking is a strength.
One immediate impact of this new and complex life is that she has played much more electric guitar through headphones than previously. The opener Listening To The Rain and Closer are the two that demonstrate this with a light jazz-like style and syncopation in the rhythm, strangely reminiscent of Judie Tzuke or Julia Fordham. Listening To The Rain is a key track, written and reflecting on the last election as a stream-of-consciousness set of lyrics representing a feeling of being disappointed and overwhelmed. The lyrics include the couplet, “Say a romcom gotcha/Like a Moonlight Sinatra”; lyrical ideas that had been sat in her notebook for a while seeking a home. She has rich, full vocals which are never strained and flow over the music.
Track two, Learning To Be Yours is an unashamed love song reflecting on how she did not expect or aspire to finding love, let alone marrying for a second time. The lyrics are emotionally open and backed with picked acoustic folk-style guitar, subtle hints of harmonica, and the backing vocals of Noelle Hampton and BettySoo complete the arrangement beautifully
I’m Not The One is the only co-write on the album; she got together with Gabriel Rhodes at his instigation to write a Buddy Holly-style song. From the carefully crafted lyrical tropes, blended joint lead vocals and baritone guitar solo, they achieve that end in a most affecting way. It is lyrically direct, taking an opposite approach to 10cc’s I’m Not in Love, to describe all the ways the protagonist is not right for him whilst clearly hoping he takes a chance. In contrast, Shadow And Sin is deliberately lyrically ambiguous. Over a sparse acoustic guitar with occasional cello backing, she lays out equally spare lyrics, allowing the listener to form their own opinion of what the song is about and how it ends. Whilst there are harmony vocals, she takes all the vocals herself, harmonising beautifully.
Living On The Seams is a full band song. A folk rock song led by piano with dashes of mournful flugelhorn, she lays out unemotionally the challenges of living with someone with a neurological disorder; the inconsistencies and the walking on eggshells actually and emotionally. The album finishes with The Night, The Moon & The Sea, a beautiful ballad with poetic lyrics reflecting on family. It describes how the family move on but stay together through the metaphor of the moon being the mother and the stars her children, and ends with “If I remember you/ Someone remembered me/ the stars know their moon will change/ Every dawn, every phase/ But I remember the moon/ and her diamonds on the sea.” Her vocals are at their most ethereal and accompanied by guitars, bass and keyboards only.
This is a stunning album that repays repeat listens. Definitely in the folk rock singer-songwriter style, she is up there with Kathleen Edwards and Amanda Shires in the beauty and emotion of her songs and lyrics; sympathetic musical backing and arrangements work to support and enhance the songs and add additional meaning to the lyrics.
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