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Ruth Notman – Threads
Since being a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards in 2006, Ruth Notman has been steadily building her reputation with extensive touring and a number of successful festival appearances; and the release of ‘Threads’ is certainly going to bring her to a much wider audience
‘Threads’ is a balanced mix of traditional songs, well chosen covers and her own material; the 5 trad arrs. sit alongside songs from Nic Jones, Dougie MacLean and Richard Thompson, and 4 songs from her own pen. It’s a confident track listing that shows her own skills as a writer are equally as strong as her traditional roots.
The immediate impact is from Ruth’s voice, it’s clean, versatile and powerful – the opening track, Jones’ ‘Billy Don’t You Weep for Me’ is beautiful sung in a similar style to the original, but it’s the slower tracks where her vocals really shine, ‘Caledonia’ is a stunning song regardless, but it sounds beautiful sung by Notman. To emphasis her versatility, the bonus track ‘What’s Going On?’ highlights her powerful, flexible vocals and her songwriting ability.
Ruth provides picked guitar and piano across the 12 tracks, Saul Rose adds excellent melodeon, Hannah Edmonds provides cello, and Bella Hardy adds harmony vocals in places. The production is also worthy of note, for a disc from a new artist the disc is varied and brave, and it’s a better album for it.
The highlights come thick and fast throughout the album, the Jones track is a great opener, the traditional ‘Still I Love Him’ is a full of energy and character, but the highlight is MacLean’s ‘Caledonia’, it’s a stunning track and this is a memorable reading.
Comparisons to other young British folk-singers are difficult, there’s really no one else doing things the way Notman does, it’s not just that she falls between folk and singer/songwriters, it’s that she does both disciplines well.
This is an exceptional album from a young English artist, and a real marker for the coming years – very highly recommended.
NOTMAN RUTH - THREADS
Notman Ruth
CD (Cat No: 13303)
NOTMAN RUTH - THREADS
