Lisa Lambe - Juniper (Album Review)
As many far more literate than yours truly have concluded over the years “The best-laid plans of mice and men” are often subject to the fickle hands of fate. Irish actress and singer Lisa Lambe has enjoyed a highly successful career in her home country with a string of well-received roles mainly on the stage. The multi-talented Lambe was also a member of Celtic Women who unsurprisingly found enormous success in America (10 Million+ worldwide CD/DVD sales) with their blend of traditional and contemporary Irish music. In 2015 she embarked on a solo career, recording an album in Nashville ‘Hiding Away’ that received cautiously positive feedback with reviewers praising Lambe’s voice while adding that the album of folk-infused songs - in the main by outside writers including Paul Brady -had been given a Nashville sheen that wasn’t necessarily required.
Fast forward to 2020 and Lisa Lambe has signed a new deal with Blue Elan records in the USA. We’ve featured Blue Elan previously here at RGM and the label has a good track record with singer-songwriters (Jack Tempchin springs to mind) and an ethos for working closely with the artist, making them feel at home while allowing them the artistic freedom to create. The resulting album received a US release earlier this year, but plans to promote Lisa to a UK audience were thwarted by the pandemic and ‘Juniper’ is only now getting an official release in September of 2020. As I said earlier; best-laid plans and all that.
Recorded at Attica Studios in Co. Donegal live in one room with producer Karl Odlum (The Mary Janes, Gemma Hayes) at the helm, 'Juniper' sounds both intimate and expansive in equal measure, painting a sonic picture that embraces the wild and windswept Irish countryside as pictured on the sleeve art. The songs were written in Connemara, an isolated area on the west of Ireland which allowed Lisa a period of isolation (ironic all things considered) to write “a love letter to nature” as she puts it. A little film trivia: Movie buffs might be interested to know that Connemara was the location for the 100% solid gold classic ‘The Quiet Man’ directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne.
The album opens with the gentle ‘North Star Rise’ which builds from ethereal, ambient folky beginnings into something more expansive. The chorus reminds me of Sally Oldfield’s ‘Moonlight Shadow’ and Lisa does a great job with her initially light, airy vocal becoming much more expansive as she utilises a higher register. The arrangement is interestingly constructed with acoustic guitar, warm bass and light-touch drums as you might expect, but benefits from cello and a cascading piano motif that I rather enjoyed, and didn’t see coming. Odlum’s bass anchors ‘Hunter’s Moon’ and that slight tremble in Lisa’s vocal instantly evokes Stevie Nicks - and by association, Fleetwood Mac - as the strings gently stab and guitarist Jake Curran adds colour with his light electric guitar fills. A trick the band and Lisa repeat on the rather lovely ‘Burning Love’ which features one of the bigger chorus hooks on the record.
The dark and brooding ‘Dust and Sand’ is a definite standout and finds Lisa at her most seductive. Dave Hingerty’s drums underscore Ruth O’Mahony-Brady’s piano as the song takes its time to build the foundations for Curran’s electric guitar to cut through. Lisa is hard to pin down as a vocalist which I feel is a strength, she's undoubtedly blessed with terrific range - and that Stevie Nicks comparison is unavoidable when she gets husky - but on the string-laden ‘Someone Like You’ or the gorgeous ‘All The Stars’ she sounds absolutely stunning, full of languid intensity (if such a thing exists) and she doesn’t oversing. I’m pleased to report no Mariah Carey wailing, or dogs in another county covering their ears here. The album exhibits many moments of light and shade from the piano-based balladry of ‘Lighthouse’ to the folky pop of hit single in waiting ‘Holding Back The Tide’ while many of the tracks build slowly as various instrumentation joins in. I’ve got a feeling the songs would be amazing live, you only have to listen to the backing vocals and Curran’s guitar solo on ‘Lighthouse’ to know the songs would work so well in the live environment.
The album concludes with two of its best songs - no mean feat considering the competition - as the title track paints a picture of the desolate Irish landscape via melancholy minor key organ and ethereal, gossamer thin, backing vocals before concluding with ‘Tiny Devotions’. Here the backing vocals sound almost playful and the piano emphasises positivity as strings swell and the album ends on a positive note “You carried on through and they didn’t break you”.
‘Juniper’ is a lovely record from a talented artist finding solid ground. Well played and beautifully sung ‘Juniper’ should have widespread appeal to country, folk and pop fans and see Lisa Lambe embark on this new stage of her musical career with a fine calling card in ‘Juniper’.
‘Juniper’ is released on September 11th in the UK via Blue Elan Records.
When Joe Satriani announced he’d be releasing a set of demos from the early 80s the natural assumption was that we’d be getting embryonic versions of tracks from albums such as ‘Not of this Earth’ or ‘Surfing with the Alien’. Truth be told - and as cool as that might have been - ‘Squares’ is actually more interesting. Many artists shun their earliest musical endeavours, happy to lock them away in a vault somewhere and seemingly have no recollection of their earliest attempts at rock stardom. Joe obviously has a soft spot for those early days, which is hardly surprising as some of the people involved in Squares still play a big part in the Joe Satriani story in 2019