Troubadour Rose
Album: Find An Arrow
Label: Clubhouse
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.troubadourrose.com

I feel totally embarrassed, by this as I thought I'd already written the review of "Find An Arrow" the debut album from folk/Americana trio, Troubadour Rose. I was really proud to have had a track, "How We Pray" from the album out on a Fatea Showcase Session earlier in the year as well as playing a number of songs on my show, "Along The Tracks" on Acoustic Spectrum, but had somehow forgotten to put finger to keyboard to write about it.

Consisting of songstress and actress Bryony Afferson, fiddler Gary Bridgewood and multi-instrumentalist Lizzy O'Connor, Troubadour Rose originally came together at a music workshop in Stoke Newington and haven't really looked back ever since.

As the name of the group implies there has been a wandering element to the talents that each individual member brought to the band and the rose for me always seems more like a dog rose, than the pristine cultured rose that adorns cards and the like, something more natural. The dominating feature of "Find An Arrow" is it's beautiful simplicity, the combination of gentle harmonies and sparse instrumentation that makes the songs move to front and centre, with that slightly windblown ephemeral touch.

Listen to the way Bryony makes use of words in her song writing and it very soon becomes obvious as to why this is such a moving album. It helps that she has a voice that could draw the birds from the sea. Even when she's dealing with darker issues she feels more like a glass hearse drawn by six white horses than a shallow grave hastily dug in a wood.

"Find An Arrow" feels like an album of truths, eloquently put. Troubadour Rose sparkle without over embellishing. You can listen to this album time and time again and still be drawn in. More Van Gough than Constable with vocal images that inspire storylines, rather than telling a moment in time.

Neil King