Sunday 13 November 2011

Thea Gilmore- Don't Stop Singing

Beautifully Melancholic

This isn't difficult to review: it is beautiful. Setting music to the lyrics of Sandy Denny, Thea Gilmore has produced an album of songs that act both as elegy and eulogy 33 years after the tragic death of Denny. Gilmore employs quite lavish orchestration at times to perhaps revisit the sound of the seventies a la Sandy, but the voice is her own - rather than imitation - and it is mature, full and gorgeous. Wonderful harmonies too. As has been noted by other reviewers, the closing song Georgia has a heightened poignancy in that it serves as a lullaby for the daughter Sandy never really got to know. The lyrics overall are notably melancholic and Thea Gilmore must take huge credit for producing so much beauty with these, for example Long Time Gone.

I got to see Sandy Denny perform live in the early 70s at St Matthew's Baths in Ipswich. I wish it had been more often.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds lovely. I love Sandy Denny so might give this one a go.

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