Written in Rouen and recorded in Minneapolis, Rachel Ries four-track EP accompanies a brief UK March tour by the South Dakota songstress which should garner new admirers to add to those already won over by the Americana charms of her well received third album, Ghost Of A Gardener.
She starts off in laid back lazing mood with the lovely, slow waltzing, Winding Road redolent of something from radio country shows of the 30s and 40s while also highlighting how her voice moves from soft and aching to soaring. She says all the songs are about “heeding the compass of your heart”, each opening “in a quagmire” before finding her way out and moving on, or, as the lyrics put it, “when the voice is clear you must heed it, when the path is clear you must take it, come what may.”
With its dark, brooding electric guitars, Homing is a moodier number, one that at times seems to hark to the desolation blues of Billie Holiday, embedding its theme of unrequited love in the line “I am just a pigeon homing him, but he does not want me in.” Jazzy piano arrives for Good Enough, a Broadway-like number with her vocals ranging across the scales on a number that comes from the heart as she sings about the balance between making music and making a living, “I’d rather a song on my tongue than a retirement fund, but I sure hope for both when I’m old to draw water from.”
The piano and guitar backed final track, Anchor, brings the mood back down to the breathily intimate adopting nautical imagery about going out into the storm in a search for resolution, of not letting dwelling on anger and resentments consume you and hold you back from moving on, or, as she punningly sums it up, “they’ve got their way and you’ve got oars.” The word cardinal has many meanings, one of which is a crested songbird. I’ll go with that.
Review by: Mike Davies
UK Tour Dates
10 March | SOMERSET ENG | Kenn Village Hall
A Songs From The Shed event | tickets
11 March | LONDON ENG | Green Note | Tickets
w. Oh Sister
12 March | KETTERING ENG | Not Just Words @ The Yards
w. Sarah Smout
13 March | CRANFORD ENG | The Old Forge
w. Ross Alexander
15 March | SHEFFIELD ENG | Greystones
w. Tom Baxendale & Yellow Cake
16 March (Rachel’s birthday!) | YORK ENG | Your Bike Shed
17 March | KIRKCALDY SCO | Kirkcaldy Acoustic Music Club
18 March | WEEM SCO | The Weem Inn
19 March | EDINBURGH SCO | House Concert
20 March | GLASGOW SCO | Woodend
Order Rachel’s Cardinal EP here (including limited edition, image below): rachelries.bandcamp.com
More details here: rachelries.com