With Catherine MacLellan’s father, Gene MacLellan, having written for Elvis, Joan Baez and Bing Crosby, not to mention penning Snowbird for Anne Murray, music is clearly in the Canadian singer’s blood and The Raven’s Sun, her fourth album, while not a game changer, has much to offer with clean and unfussy arrangements, warm atmosphere and MacLellan’s pure, at times blues-tinged, voice enfolding songs of life, death and transformation.
Featuring long-time musical partner Chris Gauthier on electric guitar, counterpointing her acoustic work, it opens in laid back mood with the title track while the soulful groove of Don’t Call Me Stranger has a strong Mark Knopfler feel. She’s at her best with the more downhome material like the intimacy of Tell Me Luella, the mountain cabin mood of the Beneath The Lindens on which Nashville’s Andy Leftwich contributes fiddle, the moving, mandolin flecked Gone Too Soon and the slow swaying Left On My Own, but, as the sinewy blues boogie Jack’s Song makes clear, she can burn and smoulder with the best. Her past albums have seen her compared to Joni, the young Emmylou and Gillian Welch, but on this she has truly found a voice of her own.
Review by: Mike Davies
Out Now, Self-Released
Order via: Amazon
http://www.catherinemaclellan.com/
Photo Credit: John Sylvester