Sister Speak
Album: Rise Up For Love
Label: Shadowside
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.sisterspeakmusic.com

Sister Speak is billed as a collaboration of musicians supporting the expression of the woman's voice - hence the name -featuring Sherri-Anne and Lisa Viegas as core members and supplemented by Tolan Shaw, Jacob Miranda and Leo Dombecki (guitar, bass and keys respectively). With all the songs being written by Sherri-Anne during recuperation from an injury which left her unable to walk and perform for some time, the nature of the material might be expected to take on a more dark and sombre quality, yet is quite a laid back set whose ten songs take up just over half an hour.

The first run through of the album created an impression of a carefully crafted yet sparsely arranged record with a bit of a throaty Stevie Nicks croon at times. 'Chicago Dream' sets the scene with a mid tempo Americana/country vibe and is probably about as raw and edgy as the album gets.

There's an interesting combination where the atmospheric 'Mirror I' leads into the stark accusations of "you let me down" and "how low can we go?" of 'Mirror II' while the acoustic opening of the title tracks eventually hits a high with some reedy organ contributing to what feels very much like the organic nature of the record. Maybe some might feel the album works best stripped right back to just voice and guitar such as on 'Coming Back' which shows Sheri at her most raw, although on the other side of the coin, 'Say You Will' has both the commercial appeal, starting in a similar way before the band add some subtle guitar harmonics, keys and drums, to make it the big production number of the album.

Overall, 'Rise Up For Love' comes over as a pleasant enough album without blowing the roof off/tearing up some trees/causing any whirlwind like damage. In fact, its charm and strength is how it works as a piece of music which is going to slowly work its way into your consciousness.

Mike Ainscoe