MEG BAIRD has made a solo acoustic album in the vein of the traditional English folk that has been such a major ingredient in the sound of her band ESPERS.
Although mostly the accompaniment is acoustic guitar, Baird occasionally switches to autoharp, and there’s a brief moment of electro-spaciness on the original “Riverhouse in Tinicum.” When she overdubs vocal harmonies, it recalls early Joni Mitchell (“River Song” is a prime example).
Besides traditional songs (and even one of the two originals, “Maiden in the Moor Lay,” uses lyrics from one of the oldest poems in the English language), there are some covers from surprising sources: NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, CHRIS THOMPSON (ex-Manfred Mann Earth Band), JIMMY WEBB (“Do What You Gotta Do,” sung by everyone from Johnny Rivers and Tom Jones to Linda Ronstadt, the Four Tops, and Sammy Davis), and obscure Canadian band FRASER & DEBOLT. Baird makes them all her own on this gorgeous album.
