Linde Nijland
Album: I Am Here
Label: Continental Song City
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.lindenijland.nl/

I first became aware of Dutch folksinger Linde Nijland when she was one half of the duo Ygdrassil. I bought their 2005 album "Easy Sunrise" because I reckoned that any band who covered songs by Trees, Pentangle and Sandy Denny were almost certainly going to be my kind of thing.I was right, they were. Further exploration revealed that Linde had made a whole album of songs either by, or associated with, my favourite singer of all, Sandy Denny. Furthermore, Linde had taken part in the Sandy Denny Tribute concert at The Troubadour in London, as well as a Fairport Convention reunion concert at The Barbican in 2009.Clearly we were on the same wavelength, which was confirmed when I met up with Linde and long-time accompanist Bert Ridderbos when they played at my local folk club, The Bothy in Southport.

Enough of my reminiscing, let's get down to business. The album under review is "I Am Here", which is Linde's fifth "solo" album [although multi-instrumentalist Bert is a regular feature on her albums as well as in live performance].

"I Am Here", which was produced by Linde, features seven original compositions by Linde and six well-chosen covers.

Apart from Linde's own guitar, Bert provides most of the instrumentation [guitars, banjo,cittern,bass,accordion and mandolin]. Joost van Es plays fiddle and Sarah Bowman adds cello on a couple of tracks.

Linde has a beautifully clear but delicate voice, with a touch of vibrato and, unsurprisingly but most attractively, a hint of a Dutch accent. It is easy to see why Linde has been compared to Sandy Denny, which in my book is the highest praise you can get.

This is a gorgeous album from start to finish, with Linde's sublime vocals gliding over a beautifully understated musical backdrop, courtesy of Bert.

The album begins with the mysterious but reflective "Life Incomplete", written by Linde.This is followed by a stunning version of "Ocean Gypsy", which was written by the late Michael Dunford [of the excellent progressive rock band Renaissance ] and poet Betty Thatcher-Newsinger. This is an epic song and Linde does it full justice. Her evocative voice suits the vivid imagery of the lyrics and there is more than a hint of Sandy in this performance. It is a great pity that Michael Dunford passed away in November 2012, as I am sure that he would have been thrilled with Linde's interpretation of his song. Incidentally, there is a great video on YouTube of Renaissance, featuring Annie Haslam, performing "Ocean Gypsy" in 1977 as part of a BBC Sight and Sound concert. Certainly worth checking out.

The other non-original songs on "I Am Here" are equally well-chosen. There are classic folk songs by Tom Paxton ["Leaving London"], Cyril Tawney ["Grey Funnel Line"],Jackson C.Frank [ the desolate "Dialogue"], Richard Farina [the rather more optimistic "Pack Up Your Sorrows"] and the Traditional "So Early In The Spring". Needless to say, Linde's interpretations of these classic folk songs are quite superb.

However, I do not want to give the impression that Linde is simply an interpreter of other people's songs. Far from it, she is a fine, highly imaginative songwriter herself. Her impressionistic lyrics have a certain opaque quality, as if you are looking at a photograph that is slightly out of focus, rather like the image on the back of the cd booklet, which is titled "Ocean Gypsy where are you ?". Linde's great skill lies in her ability to combine her individualistic lyrics with a well-developed knowledge of and feel for the folk tradition in a most appealing way.

In the title track Linde asks "Won't you listen". My recommendation is do listen to this lovely album. You will not regret it.

Peter Cowley