I opened the front door this morning and two metres away
was the smiling post lady. “Package for you”, she said. “Thank you”, I replied.
She had left it on my doorstep. I knew what it was, a new CD. I went in the
kitchen and opened the package and put the CD in the player. Then I washed my
hands because you cannot be too careful. What strange times we are living in.
It was a warm sunny day, so I sat in my yard by the back
door and soaked up the music and the sun. The album is called Like the River
Loves the Sea. It is by an American singer-songwriter called Joan
Shelley. An internet friend had recommended her music to me a few days ago
and I remembered that I had seen Joan supporting Richard Thompson in
Salisbury in late 2018. I had been extremely impressed with her at the time but
had gradually forgotten about that evening. I am grateful for the reminder
because this is a genuinely nice album.
Joan comes from Louisville Kentucky and this is her seventh
album. It was recorded in Iceland in 2019. I cannot hear an Icelandic influence
in the music though. Maybe if you go somewhere different and look back at where
you have been, then it becomes an art form. Nathan Salsburg who I think
played guitar with her when I saw her live is on the album. There are some
Icelandic musicians as well and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy whose name I have
heard before sings harmonies on a couple of tracks.
I have only heard the album twice, so I am not going to
talk about each individual song. The album has a nice consistency of mood which
I always like. I would describe it as country flavoured folk music I suppose.
Usually when I listen to a singer for the first time I am reminded of other
singers. I do not really get that feeling with Joan, except maybe a hint of
Joni Mitchell around the time of Blue. There is one song called Cycle
which mentions a lover coming home late which made me think of The Speed
of The Sound Of Loneliness by John Prine. That might be because I
have had John Prine in my brain the last couple of weeks. The songs all seem to
be very personal love songs.
Teal is a nice song, talking about ‘fresh
air, the wind and the rain’, even the birds in the trees nearby seemed to
be singing along with that song. I also liked the cello, violin and viola of
the two Icelandic sisters on Tell Me Something. Any Day Now is a
perfect upbeat song to end the album with. In the booklet of lyrics there is a
poem by Max Porter which contains the line I want to stay all night which
is the title of one of the songs and makes me wonder just how autobiographical
Joan’s lyrics are. Maybe sometimes they are quasi-autobiographical words inspired by
other writers’ work. That does not matter though. This album creates a mellow
feeling of well being in the listener and hearing this album on a nice sunny
day made the catastrophe of coronavirus seem a long way off and I’m glad I
heard it today for that reason alone.
