Rachael Sage
Album: Blue Roses
Label: Mpress
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.rachaelsage.com/

Believe it or not, Blue Roses brings Rachael Sage's studio album count to ten, not a bad score in nineteen odd years, quite prolific in fact. She is an artist that made the transition from child prodigy into a career that has allowed her talent to mature and reflect her changing needs and influences and have helped make her a bit of a renaissance woman, if you get the chance, check out her paintings and collages, and if that wasn't enough she also gained admission to the School Of American Ballet.

Throughout her career she has proved to be the epitome of the independent artist, needless to say Mpress is her own label. She's a regular tourer on both sides of the pond. There are a select band of singer-songwriters that, live, are as much a raconteur as they are performer, some have even gone as far to describe her as a comedienne, she made the list of Performing Songwriter magazine's top 100 independent artists of the last 15 years.

I have to confess that over here, in the UK, Rachael Sage, has fallen a bit into a best kept secret category. People talk highly of her talent, but there is an element of being in the know and having only been recently introduced to her talents I found myself listening to "Blue Roses" on the back of a quite substantial piece of hyperbole, not normally a good way for me to discover an artist, but as they say, 'for every rule, there is an exception' and Rachael Sage is definitely an exception.

To give "Blue Roses" a context, I'd have to say American songbook with folk leanings. With a bit more time and space, jazz touches would also creep in, along with phrases like artistic brilliance. The narrative has a real poetry to it, descriptions are rich and metaphor finds a very quick home.

Accompanying that is a melody that whilst delicate, has a real strength to it. The little touches that fuse the arrangements are spiced for flavour, rather than heat and the whole evocative and mood informing. Rachael Sage has delivered a great package and it's time for her recognition to move from an in-the-know whisper to a full blown shout.

Neil King