Debra Cowan, Fond Desire Farewell (Falling Mountain, 2009)
I don't tend to listen to much straight folk music. Although my collection contains a little bit of everything (and too much of a lot of things, my family might add), my taste leans mostly toward classic country, Americana, country-rock or whatever you want to call it. American roots music -- folk and country and blues and rock all mixed together in a genre-defying stew. One major exception is the music of Richard Thompson, whose music is a similar mix of styles and influences, except that it's based on the songs of the British Isles.
Another exception to my tendency to shy away from pure folk music has been the recordings of Debra Cowan. Her previous two albums have been pretty purely folk, often a capella, frequently accompanied just by her own guitar, and drawing mostly on American folk forms. She's been singing for 35 years, touring since 1998 while supporting herself by teaching. But now she is a full-time singer of great confidence and poise. In just a few notes, you know that here is a professional who knows her way around a song, not some youngster with stars in her eyes and more enthusiasm than skill.
With this new project, Cowan is drawing more on English folk and folk-rock, and she's backed by a band, including Dave Mattacks on drums and as producer and arranger. It's an immensely engaging collection and yet another major step forward for Cowan.
One of my favorites here, no surprise, is her cover of Thompson's "Jealous Words." She makes it her own, as she always does, slowing it down a bit from the original for a much more portentous feel. Duke Levine's dobro really highlights the song's dark and bitter melancholy. She also does an outstanding cover of the Stanley Brothers' "The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn," backed by her full band including Mattacks on drums, Levine on mandolin, Marty Ballou on upright bass and Joyce Andersen on fiddle.
Other standouts include "The Night Owl Homeward Turns," a dramatic ballad by Liverpudlian Steve Tilston about the Norsemen's invasion of Britain which is just as timely in our age of preemptive war and forced nation-building; the jaunty dark cabaret of Bill Caddick's "Lili Marlene Walks Away"; and the Kinks' "Alcohol."
There's plenty of more traditional fare, including the Shetland ballad "Yon Green Valley"; the nautical ballad "Rainbow" with excellent harmony vocals from Mike Barry; the Vaughan Williams ballad "Salisbury Plain"; and more. A bonus track features her and Barry singing "Rainbow" unaccompanied, very stirring. Oh, and don't overlook Nic Jones's stirring "Ruins By The Shore," a slow ballad from the point of view of some future being looking back at the ruins left by humanity on the Earth.
An electric Wurlitzer piano shows up on a couple of tracks; otherwise, all the instruments are acoustic. Mattacks's arrangements all beautifully show off Cowan's vocals -- the aural equivalent of burnished mahogany.
Fond Desire Farewell is, like Debra Cowan herself, a class act from the first note to the last.
