If you've got a gorgeous voice, flaunt it.
That's just what Deb Sandland does on her newly-released solo CD, "My Prayer." But just having a gorgeous voice isn't enough -- there are many "gorgeous voices" out there in the music world. If the gorgeous voice isn't coupled with the right material, doesn't demonstrate some emotional connection with the material, and doesn't have the right production, it will all be for naught.
Thank goodness Deb passes all the above tests. Her debut album is well-recorded, draws from a variety of musical styles (medieval to modern pop) and writers, from good old "Trad" (surely the most prolific writer ever), to Paul Simon ("Still Crazy After All These Years"), and John Tams ("Hold Back The Tide" and ("The Old Man's Song", co-written with Bill Caddick).
Deb's sense of pitch is unerring, her tonality rich, and her ability to use
exactly the right amount of vibrato called for in every 
phrase
or word is a true gift. Her voice is so good that she can showcase herself singing
a capella, as on"Wind That Shakes The Barley," an often-recorded traditional
folk song, or "Ivy Is Good," a 14th century song that is one of several on this
album in which Deb double-tracks herself to great effect. "Don't Leave For The
City" is a warning to the omnipresent crop of malcontents who think that that
the grass is always greener somewhere else.
She takes a Nick Cave adaptation of a traditional tune, "Henry Lee," and she and Phil Beer trade verses as they tell of Henry Lee, who learned at the cost of his life that the adage "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" is absolutely true. Henry is stupid enough to tell the song's narrator that he's got a woman who loves him more than she does. Take heed, all you men out there...she's got a penknife and she knows how to use it!
The album's title song, "My Prayer," is the last song on the album, and speaks from the hopeful perspective of a parent whose child is off to make his or her own life.
I first heard Deb on recordings of the Phil Beer Band, and was instantly captivated by her voice. Her version of Lal Waterson's "Scarecrow" (available on the well-worth-buying Heart of England charity compilation is stunning. She is versatile enough as a vocalist to sing a variety of musical styles depending on who she is playing with. Although you might not think it to listen to this particular album, she's just as capable of singing gospel-flavored blues ("Gone At Last," from the Phil Beer Band's Mandorock 2000 CD) as the more pensive material which is the basis of the "My Prayer" album.
Aside from Phil Beer (who plays just about every stringed instrument as well as sings), Deb has backing musicians Martin Green, Nigel Grist and Emily Slade on guitars (Emily does one vocal as well), Steve Crickett on percussion, Martin Fitzgibbon on drums, and Nick Quarmby on bass. All of these folks are well-known and well thought of in the British folk world, and Deb's own Web site has further links to their various projects (as well as several sampled tracks from the album). Their accompaniments set exactly the right stage for Deb's voice -- they compliment it without overpowering it.
If you have read many of my reviews (admittedly, there haven't been all that many lately -- I've been doing lots more editing than writing in the past year or so) while I've been with Green Man Review, you will know that I am fairly tough on the material I review. I don't give out kudos unless what I'm reviewing really, really pleases me. I have to say that Deb's album is one of those in which such kudos are well-deserved. It's one I will listen to with pleasure over and over again. I hope you'll take the time and trouble to seek it out, either via Deb's Web site or from Musikfolk.
