Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Elevators
This New York-based singer-songwriter is pleasingly difficult to pigeon-hole: at times she seems country and at others like someone whose favourite albums are Astral Weeks and Joni Mitchell's Hissing of Summer lawns.
She has written for Alison Krauss but also sung with orchestras (she has the vocal power for that too), been a guest on albums by the Kronos Quartet and Kate Rusby, and is probably best known here for being on Garrison Keillor's popular Prairie Home Companion radio show.
We're a little embarrassed to note we haven't written about any of her albums since 2013's Fossils which we named among our best of that year.
Typically this crafted album – more along the contemporary folk axis than country or pop – eases into the consciousness through subtle understatement and lyrics which create narratives (Prodigal Daughter with Allison Russell), alludes to Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter tradition (Phoenix, Elevators which is very close to Mitchell's slippery rhythmic and melodic shifts as she looks at mundane America out the window of moving vehicle) and touches on dramatic folk-rock (the folkadelic stirrings of Lucky Star).
There's an easy pop quality to the catchy Passengers (with Madison Cunningham) which closes the album but the title track is telling for her emotional depth: the conundrum of apathy after feeling so much (relelation, post 9-11) as she recounts a journey which sounds wearying on every level.
There is a lot of movement – literal, emotional, through times past – on this album but O'Donovan is an excellent travelling companion who will keep you engrossed by her observations and expressive tone.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here or get it from Southbound Records, Auckland.
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