(2020) Sally Anne Morgan - Thread


Review:
Folding glimmers of indie pop, drone music, and errant psychedelia into a sturdy base of Appalachian and British-inspired folk, makes her solo debut with the winsome Thread. Hardly a newcomer to either old-time music or the more experimental tenets from which she pulls, Morgan spent the prior decade immersed in arcane fiddle and banjo music, folk dancing, modern improvisation, and collaborations with a variety of interesting acts. She became a member of Virginia’s eclectic Black Twig Pickers and later formed the critically-lauded duo House and Land with fellow singer/songwriter Sarah Louise. Stepping out on her own, Morgan attempts to balance her competing influences, creating a set that feels at once simple and deeply layered. Over frailing banjo and aqueous electric guitars she begins her journey not in the mountains, but across the far Atlantic, applying her dulcet warble to the British maritime ballad, “Polly on the Shore.” Its gentle trawl sets a wistful throughline that reappears at various points within the album, especially on its tonal sibling, the lovely “Thread Song.” An undeniable sweetness imbues the simplistic repetition of “Garden,” a fingerpicked acoustic guitar tune that also as a resonant partner in the darker-themed “Wintersong.” The rugged looping fiddle trills of “Sugar in the Gourd” feel both ancient and plucked from the present, a neat trick that Morgan somehow has a knack for as on the also-instrumental ambient piece, “Ellemwood Meditation.” In the same way that many of the British folk greats of the late-60s and early-70s sought to honor the old ways instead of recreate them, Morgan manages to breathe new life into her traditional material and match it with strong originals without ever going overboard in her experimentation. The result is a deeply engaging debut with hidden depths to discover.





Tracklist:
01 - Polly On the Shore
02 - Garden Song
03 - Sheep Shaped
04 - Wintersong
05 - Ellemwood Meditation
06 - Thread Song
07 - Sugar in the Gourd
08 - Wagoner's Lad
09 - Annachie Gordon


Media Report:
Genre: alternative folk
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits