Don't Stop Singing Island***

Thea Gilmore is a brave woman. Earlier this year she marked Bob Dylan's 70th birthday by recording his John Wesley Hardingalbum, and now she has taken on the spirit of Sandy Denny, an outstanding British singer who died 33 years ago aged 31. People of a certain vintage remember Denny with a hushed reverence, singing in that by times fiercely strident or hauntingly vulnerable voice. However, by the time of her accidental death, her career was in the past. She left behind some poems and lyrics, which Gilmore, no slouch herself as a writer, has set to music. The lyrics, some clearly clumsy and unfinished, convey her notions of fatalistic romance, but Gilmore's music and singing seems almost too confident, too accomplished. Yet songs such as the title track, Goodnight, the relatively uplifting Londonand the tortured reflection of Long Time Goneare worthy endorsements of this unlikely but satisfying enterprise. See theagilmore.net

Download tracks: Don't Stop Singing, Long Time Gone