Krista Detor
Album: Barely
Label: Tightrope
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.kristadetor.com

Krista Detor released one of the stand-out roots-based albums of 2013 in "Flat Earth Diaries". Her approach on that disc struck me as a forward-looking way of utilising the bare bones of country music without ever sinking into cliché, or contrarily seeking to deploy technology for the sake of it. Her latest "Barely" is a more down-home effort, recorded in her native Indiana by her partner David Weber, and featuring primarily Detor herself on vocals, guitar and keyboards, and Weber on backing vocals and guitar.

If the opener "Can I Come Over" seems to carry on some of the approach of FED, a yearning song filled with near-despair, "Box of Clouds" which features harmonies from Moira Smiley evokes a sing-along on a front porch, playing out on an old-time hymn. "Castle in Wales" may emanate from Detor's participation in The Darwin Songhouse Project in Shrewsbury a few years back, and if Weber's guitar suggests the mutant offspring of James Burton and Richard Thompson, her sumptuous melancholic vocals are very much her own. The title track uses a spare instrumentation, piano and electric guitar, to create a track of which Nebraska-period Springsteen might have been proud.

"From the Pedestal" rebuts admonition ("Flying all around were the stories of the ways I let you down") and features effective use of Weber's tremolo arm. "All the Calls" again builds very effectively throughout, on a spare piano and accordion backing, to a point where Detor abandons her normal restrained style. Amanda Biggs, who also featured on FED, joins in on "For All I Know", which is a litany of boyish things, inspired by (presumably Krista's son) Barron Detor, aged 5. "Too Fast", which finishes the main part of the album, is nothing of the sort, again featuring sparse piano backing and Detor's solo voice.

There are two bonus tracks, subtitled "The Irish Sessions". Mary Dillon, of Deanta, and sister of Cara, guests on "The Coming Winter", a co-write between the two vocalists, which is about the human cost of war, and which also features effective cello from Anne Hurley. An almost stage-musical feel on this number, which then leads into "Sweet Comes the Sound", which blends a number of Christmas carols into a multi-layered vocal and semantic mixture.

The album as a whole is a bit of a treat. I must confess that I was slightly underwhelmed on first listen, after FED's delights, but the sparse arrangements on the main section actually allow the strength of the songs to come through effectively, and Detor's voice and her and Weber's playing is consistently strong. The Irish Session songs' arrangements are more complex and perhaps more effective, and I'm almost beginning to look forward to Christmas on the basis of listening to "Sweet Comes the Sound" on repeat. I say "almost"....

It's a shame that Detor's current UK tour has just finished, but hopefully she'll be back next year, and that'll give me time to look up more of her back catalogue. I'd suggest you do the same - after you've played "Barely" to death, of course!

Harry Thomson