Katie Spencer – Weather Beaten

Katie Spencer

Weather Beaten

(Independent)

So here we find Katie on guitar and vocal in the company of double bassist Tom Mason, drummer-percussionist Miles Bould and flute/clarinet man Martin Winning – recorded at Steinway in Fulbeck with Spencer co-producing with Spencer Cozens. The material is Katie’s. Incense Skin sets sail with a dense but gentle guitar weave and soft vocal. It’s like one of those Celtic songsmith TV shows, the tunes riddled with shadows and harmonics. A clearer vocal for Drinking The Same Water, very Judy Collins in ambience, busy percussion to the fore. The sombre tune has a hypnotic charm. On to title cut Weather Beaten uses Crosby style chording to set an intricate pattern, topped by a gorgeous vocal, unrestrained and flowing with the odd falsetto touch. The guitar is unremittingly of the Bert Jansch persuasion and the clarinet flies overhead like a migrating bird. You Came Like A Hurricane really ought to be a Grace Jones number, but we get a lilting acoustic ditty deftly played and then settling into a folky lament, breathy singing putting the lyric over.

Next up Hello Sun which floats into earshot with a dreamy backdrop. The regularity of the guitar picking puts me in mind of a piano roll! Helsa puts me in mind of the coast and foam of the waves but the songs constantly throw up mind pictures. A baroque tempo change. You could play this in art galleries..Too High Alone goes for the Joni mood and succeeds, albeit with an Anglo vibe. The traditional Spencer The Rover fits here well but the tune evokes musty folk clubs and off-white cable-knit jumpers a-swaying.

The Best Thing About Leaving is again very early Crosby and would have been great as a fully-realised Fairport-style heavier folk-rock epic, building up. But it rolls into a steady-paced brief song. Finally, The Hunter set to a stealthy tempo and taking a rustic rhythm for a run. For tuneful pastoral relaxation, this record has what it takes but I would have liked more adventure, for balance and dynamic variety. All beautifully sung, though

Pete Sargeant