The album cover is obviously metaphor/symbolic, but it is also near-neighbour emblematic [yes, there isn't much I will need to say about the lovely music] in as much as the peacefulness of the setting and the solo artist at piano, alfresco, represents a kind of peacefulness and singularity.
These are personal songs, introspection and reflections on a life lived, informed by the simple piano playing as unadorned, though there are additionals and especially cello runs that add a grandeur, perhaps a little too much at times, but nothing seriously intrusive, and Fay's vocal which is absolutely clear and centre has an obvious gentleness which adds to the overall sense of calm in the sweet melodies.
Back to the cover: the many branches suggest branching out or expansion or similar but that does seem to work at odds with the familiarity of a 'Fay' sound represented here across two discs. The buck/elk and fox looking away might encourage more analysis, but I think they are just there, and the storks/cormorants [I don't know] do not appear to be gathering for attack, coming as they do from the dusk side of the image with its crescent moon.
The fact the tree image is based on the song Countless Branches disrupts my narrative with its more reliable one, the opening lyric telling us Fay is sitting beneath this 'family tree', and is a rumination on being blessed among other feelings - this song embracing a solo piano and solo cello combo with graceful simplicity. The following song One Life reflects again on family and that oneness/wholeness.
Having just been interrupted in my writing by a Jehovah's Witness at my door - who got short shrift from me, as I am not in the mood - I would stress there is nothing preachy in the messages in Fay's lyrics - just an honesty that is warmed by the evident reflections in songs that have brewed their living over 20 to 40 years.
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