Kim Richards – Leaves That Fly
Self Released – Out Now
An artist, freelance illustrator, musician and art teacher from Ullapool, in the Scottish Highlands, Leaves That Fly is Kim Richards’ debut album, one informed by her interest in folk tales and Scottish history. The title and her sleeve design intended to evoke journeys and the passing of time, with the songs all involving some form of journey, it opens with the icy keyboard tinkles of First Love Becomes A Lad’s Hate, the title a translation of a Gaelic proverb found in A Strange Story, a Highland folk tale in Tales and Legends of Lochbroom by Roderick Mackenzie.
Another folk tale, The Mermaid Wife, a selkie story from Unst, provides the inspiration for piano ballad The Mermaid, a co-write with producer Mike Vass who also handles the programming and provides backing vocals and plays a number of instruments throughout. The album also features the vibrant musicianship of James Lindsay (bass), Signy Jakobsdottir (percussion) and Mairearad Green (accordion and backing vocals).
This is followed, in turn, by Ballad of Autumn, which is an atmospheric keyboards-based musical setting by Richards to words by 19th century Scottish folk tale collector Andrew Lang, while, elsewhere she draws on the traditional repertoire for Shallow Brown, a West Indies sea shanty that, accompanied by piano also features ambient field recordings. She also covers Kieran Halpin’s waltzing Nothing To Show For It All, Mairearad on accordion and Vass on fiddle, featuring the singing of Richard’s father, Bryan, on harmonies. He also lends his voice to the breezy Vass-co-penned Passing Tide which also features singing by various members from her weekly Sunday Sessions as well as Richards on ukulele.
The final numbers are all Richards originals, When The Leaves Grow a stately, near six-minute, piano ballad with a soaring instrumental bridge midway, the album concluding with two equally lengthy tracks, the inspirational Walk The Road with its pulsing strings and “world keeps turning” refrain and, returning to sparser notes and the unadorned airy purity of her voice, Footprints In The Snow.
What with her other creative outputs, which include illustrated books alongside her paintings, it’s taken a while for this album to finally come to fruition. Hopefully, given she’s been writing songs for several years, the response will encourage her to develop her music beyond classrooms and pub sessions and both venture back into the studio and out to venues beyond her backyard to make this the first of many.
https://www.kimrichards.co.uk/