Amy Helm – This Too Shall Light
Yep Roc – 21 September 2018
Daughter of the late Levon Helm, the drummer with The Band, Amy Helm describes her Joe Henry-produced second solo album as having a “circular sound”, which roughly translates as loose, the musicians told not to overthink things and Helm steering clear of performing the songs live prior to recording, leading to an often improvisational approach in the studio.
Variously embracing blues, gospel and Americana, it comprises a mix of originals and covers, opening with the inspirational title track, a moody R&B number penned by MC Taylor from Hiss Golden Messenger and Josh Kaufman with a lyrical nod to Donnie Hathaway’s Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything) and featuring Jay Bellerose on drums.
There one self-penned track, co-written with producer Joe Henry and Nashville musicians Paul Olsen and Ted Pecchio, a stripped back soulful piano ballad, Heaven’s Holding Me achingly but serenely muses on mortality as death approaches. I could hear both Willie Nelson and Tony Bennett singing this.
Henry also contributes one of his own songs. First up, featuring sterling harmonies from Allison Russell, JT Nero and Adam Minkoff and gospel-coloured keys, is the spiritual shaded Odetta.
Looking to the other covers, Michigan is a rework of the Milk Carton Kids number, keeping the original’s intimate confessional tone but exchanging their hushed vocals for her own Memphis soulfulness. Keeping that Southern vibe, next up comes an organ-backed Staples Singers-inspired smoulder through Allen Toussaint’s Freedom For The Stallion, a song that, while covered by Boz Scaggs, Lee Dorsey and The Hues Corporation, was never released by Toussaint other than as a duet with Elvis Costello.
The first track they laid down for the album, another familiar number will be Helm’s fine version of Mandolin Wind, a Rod Stewart number originally released on his 1971 classic Every Picture Tells A Story, here Doyle Bramhall II’s guitar and pianist Tyler Chester interweaving, though mandolin itself is conspicuously absent.
Striking out at a stylistic tangent, the world of jazz provides Long Daddy Green, a number co-written and originally recorded by American jazz pianist and singer Blossom Dearie in 1970, of whom she was a teenage fan. The original has a scampering swing tempo, but Helm’s organ accompanied version takes it down to the smoky cellar torch blues based around a rare demo recording in Helm’s mother’s collection.
T Bone Burnett is the deep well from which they draw the Orbison-esque anthemic Americana of River of Love with its march beat drum rhythm, glorious four-part harmonies and Chester’s piano solo, which leaves to tracks on which she turns to her father’s legacy. Written by Robbie Robertson and clearly conjuring The Band, the shorted number at just over two minutes, The Stones I Throw is an upbeat gradually building gospel-hued number dating back to the days of Levon and The Hawks and their first single while the album ends with another gospel note, she, Russell, Minkoff and Bramhall’s voices joining together for an a capella rendition of Gloryland, Helm and dad’s arrangement of the traditional hymn he taught her and which remains a staple of her live shows. Grab yourself a copy and let it illuminate your life.
This Too Small Light is released 21 September 2018
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