Amelia White

Amelia White manages something special in the world of Americana. She takes the ordinary and commonplace and manages to illuminate the core, make you feel the sense of import in the littlest thing. She uses her words to clarify little droplets of information and so makes the listeners life a little more complex, a little more involved. And she does it without making huge, sweeping, emotional statements but with a sense of gentle humour as well as her needle sharp observations.

Her last album was ‘Home Sweet Home’, all about the travails of life on the road, and I would say that this is its equal even though it was recorded in only four days – emotionally an incredible time as it was between her mother’s funeral and her own wedding.

Her themes are vast – fate, death, politics, grief and loss of tradition – but she views it all with a wry smile and a sense of love.

Musically, the album ranges from rockers such as ‘True Or Not’ or heavy country numbers like opener ‘Little Cloud Over Little Rock’ while she is at her best on ballads such as the gorgeous ‘Supernova’ where her slightly nasal singing voice counterpoints some lovely guitar. The darkness around the album’s closer ‘Let The Wind Blow’ evokes a brilliantly moody atmosphere.

White is so much more than just a country singer and also so much more than just a songwriter. One of the best Americana albums I’ve heard recently.