Maz O'Connor
Album: This Willowed Light
Label: Wild Sound
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.mazoconnor.com

Back in 2013 when I heard that Maz O'Connor had been selected for a creative fellowship at the English Folk Dance And Song Society funded by the BBC I thought that alone justified my license fee. Maz O'Connor's debut album really had me buzzing, I used the phrase "A vocal performance that stops you dead in your track' as part of the review.

My first thought was that the creative fellowship would give Maz an opportunity to really explore her music, mine a rich archive of songs and use that to explore her own creative thought processes, Maz read English at Cambridge, so you know that she has a real understanding of language and how to deploy it.

When I heard that she was working with Jim Moray, my mind almost went into overdrive, my level of expectation for the album simply rose and rose. My only relief was that Maz wasn't aware of the pressure I was putting on her, then I heard the first fruits from "The Willowed Light", a self penned track, "Derby Day" a commemoration of the death of suffragette Emily Wilding Davidson and I couldn't help but punch the air in sheer delight and I knew there was more to come.

Now having heard the whole thing, from the opening track, "Awake Awake" a highly imaginative working of "Silver Dagger" the "Grey Selkie", "The Willowed Light" is an album that explores contemporary and traditional folk music in a way that would make Scott Of The Antarctic proud complete with that tragic ending. In short this is an album that would seem to be destined to become a reference point in a similar way to "Freedom And Rain".

You only have to hear "Mississippi Woman" to realise that Maz O'Connor has the soul of a storyteller flowing through her fingers and still with that stop you dead in your tracks voice. There is a film called "Perfume" about a scent that is so powerful people think they are smelling heaven. It would be hyperbole to suggested that this is the aural version of that, but it is certainly addictive.

I concede, sometimes you can get a bit carried away with a review, some albums do just get you, well there, and the words are on the page before you've totally rationalised them, well just in case I waited until I'd heard this quite a lot before writing this review, but if you need a second opinion, can I refer you to the aforementioned Jim Moray, a modest man of the folk parish, 'I think it's the best thing I've ever worked on.' Enough said, no more excuses, buy it!

Neil King