Grace Griffith
Album: Passing Through
Label: Blix Street
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.gracegriffith.com

It's impossible to separate the assured performances and heartfelt singing on Passing Through from the story behind the record's genesis. More than two years in the making, American singer songwriter Griffith made the album as she continued her on-going (for 17 years and counting) battle with the degenerative effects of Parkinson's Disease. It comes nearly five years since her last album Sailing, a retrospective, rounded up her work to date with what felt like it could be a full stop. At the time she had no idea if she would ever be able to sing and record again.

That she has is not only a triumph for natural justice, but stands as testament to her resilience and sheer bloody-minded determination that she would still be heard. In fact if she had only managed to commit her take on Nat King Cole's Nature Boy to tape it would have been worth the cover price alone.

This is as bold an album of contemporary folk as any you'll find on the release slate this year. Down By the Salley Gardens is based on the Yeats poem and its lush musical setting provides the perfect cradle for Griffith's haunting vocal delivery that accentuates the work's Celtic roots, with Sue Richards on harp, without being swamped by them.

The a capella version of The Woodthrush's Song is a beautiful moment and the similarly unaccompanied Leaves of Autumn (written especially for this album by Jennifer Cutting) find Griffith at her most exposed.

Elsewhere, an elegant reading of Emmylou Harris' Cup of Kindness offers and stirring mix of hope and resignation that isn't afraid of the tremulous emotions it taps. Sydney Carter's Loud Are the Bells of Norwich stirs the senses and the traditional Bridget O'Malley leaves the listener in no doubt where the record's heart lies.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk