Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Albums of the Year # 6 Kacy & Clayton



I came upon this record a month or so back on one of those 'Overlooked Records of the Year' lists. I was glad to because it really is an extremely strong album. Kacy and Clayton are a female / male duo from Saskatchewan, Canada and they blend wonderfully that whole British late sixties Folk vibe with elements of the Appalachian musical tradition.


The resultant album Strange Country is something of a small masterpiece although this may not have been generally recognised as I can't remember it featuring on other end of year lists apart from my own and the one I mentioned above. Nevertheless I commend it to you. The songwriting is incredibly strong and they cover a lot of ground thematically. Vocalist of Kacy Anderson has incredibly sweet and sensitive delivery, pitched somewhere between Cowboy Junkies Margo Timmins and Sandy Denny and guitarist Clayton Linthicum pitches in appropriately in terms of harmony.



It's difficult to choose individual tracks to post because there's not a weak link among the ten that make up the record. You get the feeling there's a lot of learning here, that the two have immersed themselves in the tradition they're drawing on but the record they've produced as a result is warm and intimate and sassy and smart.



No comments:

Post a Comment