Atmospheric traditional Appalachian folk with beautiful harmonies.
Vocalist Jessica Rhaye, guitarist Bill Preeper and multi-instrumentalist Sandy MacKay were together in the Canadian folk-rock band The Ramshackle Parade, which has produced two albums “Just Like a Woman – Songs of Bob Dylan!” (2019), and “Sunshine Baby” (2023). This is their first work as a trio.
They describe their music as folk and the album indeed has a solid traditional folk feel in the vocals and wonderful three-part harmonies, in the tempo of some of the tracks and in their descriptions of a connection to the natural world. However, there is a swing in some of the songs, and lap steel and slide guitar are added to give a country feel at times. You can see why they also describe themselves as “Maritime Appalachian Folk”.
The songs were recorded “live” until they got the sound they wanted, with the most takes for any song being seven. Rhaye says that they found the process “natural and refreshing” and that “we achieved our goal of making a record that could have been written and recorded in the height of the Greenwich Village folk scene”
The first track ‘Goin’ Back to Harlan’ is an Anna McGarrigle cover, whereas the other songs are all written by either one or a combination of the trio. Immediately you feel immersed in nature like being in a warm comforting bath with lines like “underneath the silver maples/ the balsams and the sky/ we popped the heads off dandelions”. Mention here of “The Hangman’s Reel” is no surprise in this folk song.
The opener has male lead vocal and female harmonies but the roles are reversed in the second track, ‘Rocky Hills’. Rhaye’s vocals are beautifully clear and her singing throughout is a highlight of the album. The words here of a fleeting sight of a bird while in the hills are, like so many others, very atmospheric.
‘Waltzing to Paradise’ has the waltz-time you might expect, with slide guitar to increase the interest. It appears to be a lullaby but may be addressed to a weary partner “I wish you would sleep sometime soon”. ‘Jared’s Mountain’ is more definitely a lullaby to a child, but again linked to nature: “rest in sunny valleys/ beneath the fragrant pines”. Lullabies are not obvious subjects for americana- it is hard to envision Willy Vlautin, for example, penning one- but they work very well in the context of this album.
‘Stealing Time’ and ‘I Feel More Like I Do Now’ are really quite catchy. The first has lap steel and mandolin while the latter, where the singer tries to explain his complex inner self to a partner or friend, has country runs and a nice electric guitar solo. ‘Red Rocks and Timothy’ has moving words about a visit to someone with memory loss in a hospital and the album closes with an instrumental, ‘Sweet Night’.
This is traditional music at a very high standard with songs that grow on you over time. It is an album that fans of folk music would very much enjoy.
