1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
May She Ever Remain Wild and Undaunted., October 3, 2007
This review is from: Wild & Undaunted (Audio CD)
I found this album quite by chance. It was listed on a review site under the heading `artists to watch' and intrigued by the description I thought I would take a chance and get the album. It is a discovery like this that more than justifies the inevitable disappointments that you get when taking such an approach.
Of the eleven beautifully crafted songs crafted songs here, three are original compositions and the others are Trad/arr. by... but without the credits to guide you it would be impossible to tell which is which, as she takes all these songs and makes them truly her own.
I can't really put my finger on how she has done it but Lisa Knapp has managed to make her re-workings of the traditional songs on this album , despite the use of almost exclusively acoustic instruments, feel very modern and fresh, without sacrificing the integrity of the material.
Her voice is wonderful, but there are a lot of good singers around. Thankfully there is more to this artist than that and it is ultimately the songs and their arrangements that make this such a fabulous record. The first couple of songs are excellent and hold to a fairly traditional feel, but the album really gets into its stride with the utterly gorgeous `Beggar Beggar', a brilliant proof of the maxim: `less is more', as the song is carried by just Lisa's voice and plucked fiddle. Equally beguiling is the title track and is a sharp contrast to the former as it features a range of instruments, it is the only track to include drumming and a rousing rendition of the song it truly is. I shan't attempt a `track by track' review but another real highlight, for me, is the original composition `Ride Along' which, with its downbeat lyrics and moodily atmospheric tone, attains a strangely `epic' feel that had me mesmerised from start to finish.
This is folk music but it is folk music at its most warm and welcoming and will surely delight a wide range of music lovers, not just fans of the genre. Highly recommended
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