Reviews
Artist:Tekla Waterfield Album: New Skies
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.teklawaterfield.com
Working in collaboration with husband and musical partner guitarist Jeff Fielder, like her raised in Alaska, this is a swift follow-up to Trouble In Time, released earlier this year, and further underlines the Seattle-based singer-songwriter's Americana credentials. Despite lyrics about stasis and feeling stuck ("Picket fence I left behind/Broken home and dream/But I can't move on"), it gets underway with the resonator guitar and puttering percussion of the toe-tapping folksy 'Can't Move On', the melodically catchy flow continuing into the breathily sung country-inflected defiance of 'Can't Have Me' ("Bus riding bully/You push and you pully/You're pushing me/Til you make me bleed/But you can't have me").
With its walking beat rhythm and brief midsection spoken passage, 'Yesterday Was A Bad Day' has an air of Suzanne Vega about it as she sings about putting the past behind you and moving on ("Woke up sick all day in a fog/Missing him wondering what/I'm gonna do and where to go…But that was then and this is now/And today I think I like myself a lot") before the upbeat and optimistic title track is washed with a sunny pop-folk feel, switching to a driving, bluesier, rockier tack for 'Mr Browntown', with its throbbing bassline, heavier drums, psychedelic organ and electric guitar.
She keeps that urgency going with the gospel soul sway of 'Lie, Lie, Lie' with its organ, R&B backing vocals, Kate Olson on sax and lyrics that seem to address abuse ("Said that it never happened/Said she tarnished your good name/Said I'm a good man ask my family"), a similar soulful vibe informing the slow and steady six-minute '37,' a musing on getting older ("You're on your second marriage/Or if you're lucky/You're on your first one/You might be busy all the time/Moving closer to the line/I just hope/You're being kind") whereas the straightforward 'Love Comes Along' strips things back down for an acoustic strummed country slow sway duet with Luke Abbott.
It makes its way to the exit with the bubbling choppy rhythm pop rock of the loose limbed vocal delivery of 'Come On Jane', a number about time passing you by and the need to get out of the rut ("Sitting on the couch/Watching stories about other people's lives/And you wonder what happened to your own/You got the same old job/You got the same old friends/ And you haven't put a dollar in the bank since/Nineteen ninety-ten") closing the door behind it with one final foray into a slow R&B sway and reverb guitar of the reflections on childhood ("I dream of a short haircut/Mama wears it long…It catches on the strap of my backpack/And when I ride the merry-go-round/I dream of a short haircut") that is 'Strange Places' where the line "Been drawing pictures of/Of strange places/I've never seen" could well sum up the craft of the creative artist.
Waterfield has established a solid reputation in and around Seattle, it's well time the rest of the world latched on too.
Mike Davies
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Fatea Showcase Sessions
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