Lizzie J Taylor
Album: Living In The Lowlands
Label: Clunk And Rattle
Tracks: 10
Website: http:/www.lizziejtaylor.com

Lizzie's background's a touch obscure, with almost no information available on her website. Based in Cambridge, she's a guitarist and singer-songwriter, and she must be well regarded cos her debut CD's been produced by Nick Barraclough (he also plays mandolin, bass and a touch of pedal steel on the album). Her honest booklet note admits that she went on a songwriting course at New Year 2010, following which she "went home, bought a guitar and wrote these songs"; and if that's to be taken literally, then this is a pretty amazing first attempt.

It takes in a reasonable gamut of inspirations both from the loose Americana genre and from all-round reliable acoustic songwriterdom. Sure, there are occasional rather overt instances of derivativeness, but hey, this is a first stab at the market, and there's more in terms of achievement and promise than many a debut record conceived on a similar amount of experience.

The disc opener, Leaving Like The English, which borrows a French expression for leaving without saying goodbye, forms an attractive calling-card in its own right, and showcases Lizzie's better-than-capable singing voice and aptitude for the rootsier side of the spectrum of the approved s/s idiom. Like the songs that come after, this first track is crafted, lean with no padding, says what it needs to and then gets off-stage with no fuss - and there's nowt wrong with that.

Much of Lizzie's material is concerned with romance and its trials, and Lizzie remains true to the conventions here. Simple and pleasing life experiences form the basis of pieces like One Thousand Times Untrue and the chirpy I Sing, songs which recall Gillian Welch perhaps in their uncluttered expression. The album's well-considered sequence also takes in the poignant love song to a troubled teenager Redhaired Daughter, and, right at the end of the disc, the compass widens beyond the purely personal with The Navigator (the tale of a presumed wartime pilot) and the aching portrait of Peter My Brother.

Along the way, to augment Lizzie's plain but sufficiently supportive guitar playing there's some nice instrumental fills courtesy of Nick B (as I mentioned), also Mark Gamon, Robb Appleton, Dave Olney and Jeremy Khan, and the cleanly-recorded backdrops suit sure Lizzie's songs well, with exactly the right amount of presence. And Boo Hewerdine enters the fray at a couple of points, co-writing the eloquent and memorable expression of universal-faith Prayers and enabling one track (the beautiful, gentle Lowlands) to be recorded at his Glasgow studio (where he was able to contribute some guitar lines).

Perhaps the only track where casual derivativeness wins over invention is the repetitive Gorgeous; but on the evidence presented elsewhere on this album I'm much taken with Lizzie's music.

David Kidman