A cold overclouded Saturday morning at the end of January. Looking out of my window, sat at my desk. The Newcastle streets are wet with overnight rain. Frankly it doesn't look very inviting. But I don't need to go out just yet. I've got a pretty wonderful record to listen to and review on here.
Meg Baird has been putting out records for a while now. As a member of Espers and Heron Oblivion and for several years now, on her own. They've all mined similar seams. Folky, Psychy ones. Echoes of former times. Fairport, Nick Drake, Fotheringay.
Latest album Furling is her fourth solo outing. I haven't heard all of her other ones but I suspect it's her best. They'd have to go some to be better than this. Anyhow, it's more than enough in itself.
It sets off with an instrumental piece called Ashes, Ashes which is weirdly and wonderfully reminiscent of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Talk about setting your bar high. Miraculously it doesn't fall short.
From here the record becomes more what you might expect it to be. Nick on guitar, Sandy singing. Perhaps I'm stretching things slightly here. Meg doesn't actually sound like Sandy. But that gives you the general idea.
It's plaintive, meditative, reflective. And lots of other wonderful things. Mostly positive adjectives ending in -ive. It's pretty damned beautiful. Albeit in a slightly spooky way.
It's altogether something of a wonderful gift. To round up an altogether wonderful month for music. Now all I need to do is get round to writing about all the great records I haven't written about yet.
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