Alison Williams Bailey
from The Druids' Voice, Vol 1, No 10
This is one of those brave albums that consists almost entirely of voice
and acoustic guitar. Brave because such a sparse setting leaves little room
to hide. Fortunately Alison has a clear soulful voice that falls easily
on the ear and has a good range.
This first CD contains a mix of traditional and self-penned material. The
opening track, 'A Long Way Away is A Long,' had me wondering if this might
be a shade too folky for my taste. The second is a fine rendition of one
of the most beautiful songs in the folk canon: 'She Moves Through the Fair.'
Hard to go wrong with such gorgeous material, and Alison doesn't. By this
time, the simple interplay of sound was already growing on me. Two more
self-penned songs, 'You, Me, I' and 'Sticks and Stones' demonstrate a thoughtful
lyricist at work with a human, deeply felt agenda.
The next, 'Search,' Alison sings a capella, a trick only a good vocalist
can pull off: she does, graced by a fine, subtle use of reverb. The title
track, 'Creation Song,' reveals clearly Alison's Druid faith, taking us
through the process of creation, planetary, human and emotional.
To my ear, the best of the a capella tracks on the album is 'Sunset,' the
lyrics of which have a haiku-like quality as Alison gives us a crystal-wrought
word picture of a sunset. Lovely. The next, 'Changes,' again speaks clearly
of the singer's faith, offering a vision of change: "She changes everything
she touches, and everything she touches changes..." This flows into
a vivid re-telling of the legend of King Midas, set to a gently rocking
guitar accompniment. This version of the tale has Midas seeking out a hag
in the forest. Of course, we all know that hag's gifts can frequently be
double-edged swords.
I shan't give any more away, except to say that the return of 'Changes,"
with the addition of percussion, brings the album to a rousing finale. In
short, here we have a bard to watch for, and I look foward to seeing her
live.
Alison Williams Bailey is a Bard and member of The Druid Network.
To find out more about Alison visit her web site at http://www.aliswsbailey.plus.com/
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