Annie Gallup
Album: Ghost
Label: Gallway Bay
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.anniegallup.com

Funny how many albums I seem to've reviewed lately with "Ghost" in the title!…

Ghost, the tenth solo album from award-winning Michigan s/s Annie Gallup, finds her once again fearlessly exploring a completely different musical environment in order to showcase her finely-graded songwriting. This latest project sets her evocative, ever-imaginative wordplay to an intimate old-time-style backdrop, and features the musicianly talents of wizard genre diehards Gabe Witcher on fiddle and David West on dobro and mandolin, with the ever-reliable, simpatico Peter Gallway on string bass and production duties.

The musical genesis of this project arose around five years ago when Annie had her breath taken away when she came across Gabe's fiddle playing on a recording; through David West, she finally managed to connect with Gabe, in the firm belief that his thrillingly soulful playing would form a key element in her realisation of this new group of songs on the general themes of memory, recollection and yes, ghosts. That's a spot-on judgement, for Gabe's fiddle work is outstanding: heartfelt, lyrical and idiomatic throughout. Gently fleshed out with David's dobro and Annie's six-string banjo and guitar, the little band conjures the requisite air of often elegiac antiquity that the songs demand. And yet, the most telling of all Gabe's own contributions occurs on the disc finale, a heart-stopping cover of Dougie Maclean's Caledonia where Annie really makes the song her own, not least through some unexpected changes in phrasing and melodic nuances that indicate the depth to which she's really thought about the lyric. The incredibly responsive intimacy of Gabe's playing here sets the seal on Annie's magnificent, fresh, personal interpretation of a song that's so often treated with indifference and misunderstanding by lesser mortals (and there's some lovely backing-vocal work on this track too, courtesy of Anna Abbey). Caledonia could be regarded as an unusual and unexpected choice for a master singer-songwriter like Annie, but it coheres so brilliantly with the disc's theme and her own writing in that context. There's another cover on the disc, a nicely bluesy version of the traditional Rock Salt And Nails, which fits in well too.

But I mustn't for a moment underplay the subtle, sensual and sensory power of Annie's own songs, which hauntingly explore the ancestral themes. Some even go as far as to knowingly replicate the old-time idiom and expression - the opening Diamond Ring is a particularly good example of her incorporation of the authentic old-time string-band mode, and Ghost Town Kite is a superbly poetic invocation which also benefits from Anna's sensitive backing vocal. Ghosts and spirits pervade this atmospheric set of songs: it's the spirit of place that's strongest on West Memphis, Arkansas, while Danny Barnes wistfully conveys the spirit of a person - in this case a veteran banjo player and the ghost of a loved one is poignantly and affectionately evoked on Weapon Of Choice. Annie's well-developed feeling for heritage and history comes to the fore on The Battle Of Brooklyn. Finally, the spiky Unravel and the tenderly observant A Loves B can both be seen to depart from the central theme just a little, in that they examine the spirit (as opposed to the ghost) of a relationship, but these still fall well within the compass of Annie's writing and don't feel out of place.

Altogether, Ghost forms a further persuasive chapter in Annie's artistic development, and a significant addition to her already impressive catalogue of recordings.

David Kidman