Reviews
Haverin Album: Home
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 13
Website: https://www.haverin.co.uk/
A sextet from the Orkneys, lining up as Aileen Bain, Megan Bain, guitarist Graeme Miller and fiddler Jenny Keldie sharing lead vocals with Andy Brown on keys and songwriter Amy Berry on bass, they formed in 2022 and, playing a blend of folk and Americana, have made a name for themselves on the local scene. This, their debut album, should easily see the word spreading.
Aileen and Megan sharing lead, 'Before The Ship Goes Down' opens proceedings in jazzy form, evoking thoughts of Pentangle with Keldie's fiddle driving the mid-section for a song about getting away from a crumbling toxic relationship"("You won't bring me down or break my heart/I'll cut you lose and run for my life/Before the ship goes down…I feel it coming the tides are turning I'm not drowning anymore/I walk on by with my head held high and its' good for my soul").
Graeme taking vocal lead counterpointed by Jenny, the circular fingerpicked 'White Flag' again picks apart a relationship ("There's time well wasted and time well spent/Some take what they want some take what they get/And well-meant words are filled with regret") while "the wind still blows and the world keeps spinning round", both a surrender but also a refusal to give in ("we've come so far but we've now reached the end/But we'll hold on tight til it all starts again").
Fiddle lighting the fuse, Megan, Aileen and Jenny sharing lead, ships and water again part of the imagery. 'It's My Time' has a folksy blues stomp groove to its theme of encroaching mortality ("Do you mind if I sit down here for a while/See these old legs they've done me proud… but they're bowing out/My weary bones they all start to fail/There's no more wind left in these old sails").
Taking the theme of self-worth, piano ballad 'Monsters' is arguably the standout as Aileen sings "I guess there's things I can't outgrow/Like the monsters in my head/And the ghosts beneath my bed/And the fear that I'm not good enough", the departing old friend not a person but a mental state ("My old friend you need to know/I'm stronger now than I was before/See yourself to the door/There's no room for you anymore") as she declares "I know if I try my best/Then I'll be good enough".
A co-write by Berry and Miller, the latter on vocals, the guitar and piano dappled 'Rivers and Roads' continues on an introspective theme of emotional denial to avoid being hurt ("I've been thinking lately that I'm just naïve/I don't see all this mess surrounding me/So I turn another blind eye/And pretend that I'm doing fine") the lyrics once more employing the album title imagery ("I will run down rivers and roads… I'll keep my head down low/When it gets cold I'll make my way home").
Reflective and melancholic with Appalachian meets Celtic country flavours, Megan taking lead, the title track is, as you'd assume, about finding a place to belong where refuge awaits ("Ive been drifting for some time/It's no good for my weary mind/I've been lost for far too long/I need to find my way back home…where the lights stay on/Where the fire burns to keep me warm")
The liveliest track with skirling fiddle and drums, 'Selkie Lass' leans into the familiar Celtic/Nordic folklore of a human and selkie union but plays out as a song about the subjugation of women who find themselves trapped in a marriage ("The selkie lass resigned herself to life with no fins/She bore him 7 babies/and she loved the best she could") and the need to break free and embrace her true nature ("She longed for her selkie man and life below the sea/And yearned to find a plan to set her free"), even if it means leaving her daughter behind ("Her lass feared what her life would be/No mother by her side/But she could bear no more the dark/and sadness in her eyes/She kissed her mum in tears then watched/as to the shore she ran/she slipped her skin on in the sea/and found her selkie man"). Taking the tempo down, another Berry/Miller co-write, sung by Aileen, the mandolin flecked 'Clowns' is a nostalgic reverie on the idealism of past times ("remember all those nights when we put the world so right"), a regret of their passing with the years ("It's funny thinking now/How we used to live like clowns/I'd pay a million pounds to live that way now") but also of realising you're where you're meant to be ("the world keeps moving on/But I'm right where I belong"). Keeping it calm, Jenny on lead, 'Pieces' is sort of carpe diem musing on the vulnerabilities and defences that form how we face the world ("We laugh we smile and head back to our perfect lives/But close the file in case we show our little lies…There's things we can erase so we can show our face but there's no stones left to throw/Everything's a race to have it all in place but/There's no bones to keep us strong") with the downbeat conclusion that ultimately you've let life pass you by and "When all the pieces fall/It all comes crashing down and you're left here all alone".
Picking the pace back up with a tumbling drum pattern, 'Upside Down' brings together Graeme and Megan, continuing the album's thematic running threads of the need but inability to change, of regrets ("Let's pretend that we are friends/But there's nothing left to say/We'll make amends/And tie loose ends then both be on our way"), insecurity and surrender ("You're not as brave as you pretend/And you can't hide your shame/Just raise your hand cos in the end there's no one left to blame").
Megan singing lead, the underpinning melody phrase of 'Crazy Dance' had me thinking of Buffalo Springfield's 'What's That Sound' but, building into a staccato rhythm with fiddle solo, the overarching feel is of American gospel with one of the album's more positive offerings ("I know we all get the blues/I've had my fair share too/But I'm getting bored now/I need to turn this around and I think I've found the cure") in the liberating power of music and dance ("Throw your hands in the air/Crazy dance like you don't care/No excuse, cut loose/Let go, let down your hair…I know it won't make everything right/But oh it feels good tonight").
Co-written by Berry and Mary Ozaraga with guest vocalist Alice Tait, the lightly picked penultimate 'Fairytales' is a folk-shaded ballad swayer that carries over that upbeat resolution about living in the now not in the fantasy ("don't get me wrong I'm all for dreaming/Just don't have the time for make believing/I need love that won't let me down/More than a pretty crown/Give me verb over noun/I need love that won't let me down… I know there's more than wishful thinking/I won't fall for love that's not worth giving"). They close with the slow swaying strummed campfire feel of 'Thomas', piano and upright bass providing the foundation for Jenny's lament and fond farewell to a lost longtime true friend ("Things never changed between you and me…I hope, that you're free …We'll miss you"), a poignant parting note to an album that fully deserves to find a place in the end of year folk best of lists.
Mike Davies
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