David Llewellyn & Ida Kristin
Album: Songs Around The Kitchen Table
Label: Dabhand
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.davidandida.com

He's from Wales and is based in Nashville, she's Swedish and lives in Stockholm, the two of them crossing paths in 2008 at a songwriters retreat workshop in Gotland where, paired off, they were given the task of writing a song about a couple in a coffee shop. The result was The Coffee Shop Song, a playful acoustic ditty about a waitress trying to encourage a bickering couple to finish up and leave, the pair of them swapping lines and verses. The chemistry that produced that led to further co-writes, both online and during snatched trips across the Atlantic, the first being This Morning Blues, a tender Appalachian-tinged song about parting lovers separated by the distance between them. Both now form part of the duo's debut album collaboration, recorded live during visits to Llewellyn's home studio over 2011 and 2012, the title reflecting the laid back evenings trading songs, their acoustic guitars complemented by Nashville sessioners like Robin Ruddy on dobro, Catherine Styron Marx on piano and Tim Lorsch who provided the violin and cello on The Morming Blues.

As you'll gather, it's a relaxed affair, the two of them variously singing together or providing harmonies to the other's lead, the songs made up of four collaborations, three solo contributions and four covers. Of the other two other co-writes, Just Surrender has Kristen taking lead on a shimmering song about wondering whether to plunge back into the rollercoaster ride while, featuring Bruce Baxter on accordion with the pair sharing verses and with an ambience evocative of clear starry nights, the gently fingerpicked Only God Knows takes a wider, more cosmic perspective calling on Ghandi, Jesus, Buddah and the Dalai Lama to answer life's big questions, such as why we hurt the ones we love and why ice cream melts so fast, to a melody line reminiscent of Emmylou's Boulder To Birmingham.

Sticking with themes of love, Llewellyn's solo offering is Homeward, taking lead on another song about distances between true hearts, while Kristin takes credit for piano ballad The Real Peter Pan, which with lines about silver hair and visiting his Neverland, is patently about David, and, shaded by John Mock's Irish whistle and simple acoustic guitar, God's Waltz concerns someone who sings "such beautiful songs".

Their choice of covers reflects their roots and influences. It's no surprise to find Simon & Garfunkel represented with a sunny, lazy wander through 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy) while Turn! Turn! Turn! and an achingly emotional duet version of Ewan MacColl's First Time Ever I Saw Your Face are equally much covered numbers. However, the hidden gem in their net is their slow waltzing duet on Dancing, a lovely song of the yearning heart written by Grace Pettis, daughter of the great Pierce Pettis and, like Llewellyn, a past winner of the Kerrville New Folk Contest, and hopefully some of the admiration accorded this album may be reflected back on hers too.

It's not an album to change your life (and I don't think it's really quite up there with the Once partnership between Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová to which it has been likened), but it will make a perfect soundtrack for those summer twilights as you stare into the sky and think about the loves of your life and the kitchen tables you've shared.

Mike Davies