Feb 2007
Devotees of Maddy Prior and Fairport Convention will find Ms. O’Rourke’s lovely and strategically deployed contral to an integral addition to this versatile, largely folk-oriented collection of melodic ballads, which are instrumentally toughened by electric guitar and sweetened by fiddle and acoustic guitar. There is a wistful, almost sentimental, quality to her voice which lends to even her most subtle tunes a timeless appeal, and which enhances immeasurably remarkable songs like “Sepia Tones”, “Tangerine”, “Why Do I” and (the comparatively gritty) “Stir Crazy”. In a folk music marketplace glutted with sound-alikes and wannabes, this hauntingly original and remarkably assured CD debut is a keeper.
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