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Elly Roberts reviews
Red House Records
- March 2007
- Rating: 10/10
There arent many country singers Id go out to see live: Lucy Kaplansky is one.
Beautifully-voiced Lucy from New York has a real belter on the hands withOver The Hills, her first in three years, and a return to her formativemusical love folk and classic country. She ought to be a superstar inchosen genre. One day she may well be.
This country-fuelled album has 12-string guitars, accordion, harmonium andpedal steel in addition to Kaplanskys supple dulcet tones. Somehow its beendescribed as alt-country, which is totally misleading. This is much rootsierstuff.
Dripping in class, her effortless singing is reminiscent of Blues singerLisa Mills. Its such a natural thing it doesnt need instruments to enhanceit. Theyre there, so it sounds even better. Its not a particularly grandeffort either, mainly because of the smooth and relaxed comfort zone thatprevails. Much of the content is personal. Songs are about her late father,grandpapa, and toddler Molly she adopted from China. Each song strolls alongnicely with that wonderful voice being the main focus.
Manhattan Moon bounces along, boosted by Duke Levines mandola andLarry Campbells sublime pedal steel. Upping the pace a tad, Amelia has somegreat ringing guitar solos a la Bonnie Raitt, and theres that great westerntwang to spice things up. Larry Campbells pedal steel totally re-definesRoxy Musics More Than This.
Ring Of Fire swaggers along unashamedly without even breaking sweat.Its more a joyous western romp for Swimming Song, as the tight banddoes a Springsteen Seger Sessions workout. It couldnt get much simpler forOver The Hills: accordion, acoustic guitar and bass, with Eliza Gilkysonproviding sweet backups for Lucy, which is a tribute to her father and RedHouse Record president Bob Feldman.
Finally, The Gift, a lovely story of her grandpapas endeavors to cleardebt by winning a singing contest, closes an engaging and intimate record.
Weblink:lucykaplansky.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Manhattan Moon
2. Amelia
3. More Than This
4. Ring Of Fire
5. Swimming Song
6. Todays The Day
7. Over The Hills
8. Somewhere Trouble Dont Go
9. The Gift
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.