There was always something subtle and understated about the type of roots music that Love Me In The Dark, Heather Donavon’s previous band, made. Here, she takes that sonic ethos into even more minimalist, soulful, serene territory.
With “I Get Along Without You Very Well,” a song penned by the iconic Hoagy Carmichael we find her channeling something of the old-school jazz diva or supper club soul singer, serving up a slice of sophistication and nostalgic sentiment. But why not? It’s a great, classic sound, and it is easy to see why such a sound is as popular today as it was fifty, sixty, seventy years ago. (Checks notes, well, 86 to be precise.)
“I Get Along Without You Very Well” is a song built less on actual sonics and more on feeling. Guitar and piano chime out sparingly in the background, but the song is about Heather’s exquisite and timeless vocals, which drift along spaciously, subtly, and seductively under their own gentle and intoxicating power.
And space is indeed the key. In the absence of the usual overplayed approach that modern music seems to fall victim to, here, it is those spaces, those long pauses as one vocal line fades or a guitar note lingers, that allow all manner of atmospheres and anticipations to pool and percolate and make the song much more than the sum of its very few sonic parts.
If ever you need an example of just how powerful the less-is-more approach to music can be, it doesn’t come better than this.
