Graham Reid | | 2 min read
The Water's Edge
Singer-songwriter Charlotte Yates is possibly better known for what she has done for others than on her own account.
She was the prime mover behind four important albums, Baxter, Tuwhare, Ihimaera and Mansfield for which the writings of those towering figures (James, Hone, Witi and Katherine) were set to music by stellar casts of contemporary musicians, among them Don McGlashan, Mahinarangi Tocker, Hinemoana Baker, Dave Dobbyn, Emma Paki, Mel Parsons, Lorina Harding, the Bats . . .
She also corralled the projects into live performances.
For many years she also wrote a helpful column on songwriting for NZ Musician and runs workshops.
So when she stepped out with her own albums she could count on guest assistance from the likes of Greg Johnson, Tom Callwood (Phoenix Foundation), Jeff Henderson . . .
However it's fair to note her albums – despite her being a Silver Scroll finalist in '91 and winning the singer-songwriter category in the '97 Wellington Music Awards – haven't had the attention they deserve.
And there have been seven of them since her Queen Charlotte Sounds debut in '91. Elsewhere has caught a few in passing.
Yates' most recent release has been a little more modest, the seven-song EP Winter's Eye co-produced with Brooke Singer (French for Rabbits).
Her interest in marrying the traditional songcraft with contemporary technology continues from her previous albums Then The Stars Start Singing and Archipelago.
The lovely Garden is emblematic of just how clever a writer she is: the suggestion of reggae and Aldous Harding, an arrangement that brings in fiddle at a key point, a kind of delay/echo in her lyric and lines which are both telling and a functional hook: “Hey hey you across the great divide, all the way over on the other side”.
The literary world which she has inhabited for her writers' projects come through in the excellent lyrics of the folk-rock The Water's Edge with its geographical specificity.
She leans into indie.rock-cum-folk for the throb of Push Back, the slippery shifts of Before It Changes Everything deserves close analysis by aspiring songwriters and the title track at the end is a self-affirmation “in the face of the flood and every broken fence”.
Again she nails down such specificity that her songs feel grounded even as they work in the metaphorical realm.
A flexible singer, ambitious and successful songwriter, and determined self-starter, Charlotte Yates has always been worthy of serious attention . . . and this pocket edition of her talents is an ideal place to start if she has gone past you.
.
You can hear and buy music by Charlotte Yates at bandcamp here
post a comment