Roger Tarry
Album: Quiet Town
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.rogertarry.net

Bristol-based Roger's another of those singer-songwriters whose work I'd been meaning to investigate for the past few years, indeed ever since his 2005 debut full-lengther Last Time I Was There was much acclaimed in all the right places. So I was glad to get the chance to cover the rather-long-awaited followup.

Quiet Town proves a most accomplished record, contemplative in tone and blessed with textures that are feather-light yet substantial. Roger's individual sound-world is most persuasive, his collaborators including Toby Field (piano, keyboards), Lizz Lipscombe (violins), Alison Gillies (cello), Mirek Salmon (accordion) and Terry Edwards (brass) providing just the right kind of setting for his bittersweet, plaintive lyrics. Roger's special delivery of his lyrics is at once laid-back and gently upfront, chill-out and lovingly intense, and a tellingly sparing use of richer string and (more occasionally) brass texturings cushions Roger's simple fingerpicked embellishments.

Notwithstanding the distinctively personal nature of Roger's music, however, it's nonetheless hard not to find oneself referencing Nick Drake in particular at several points - although that's often more in the musical ambience than anything definite within the lyrics, and is especially noticeable where lusciously hazy, drifting atmospherics are brought into play (as on They Have Never Seen), or in the tenderly edgy delivery of Dying Wish. And on songs like Blow, Roger makes interesting creative capital out of the contrast and play between his rushing, tumbling filigree guitar accompaniment and the altogether more languorous nature of his vocal line. On the other hand, it's not difficult to hear the influence of David Rawlings in the intricate, rippling guitar figures of Cropsy, while a Gillian Welch comparison might be apposite with regard to Caroline Martin's vocal contribution on the disc's opening ballad It's Not You.

Having said all that, Roger's own distinctive vision, peaceful overall and yet with darker overtones, is accurately conveyed in his fragile and poignantly expressive music on this treasurable disc.

David Kidman