"Be yourselves, everybody," Julie Lee tells her supporting cast of musicians at the start of this album. And that's a great way to introduce this album. Lee is a singer/songwriter of the acoustic guitar tradition based in Nashville, but doesn't slip into any of the pigeon-holes that could suggest.
Like Sarah Masen-Dark, who appears here on backing vocals and slide guitar, Lee is very obviously influenced by Victoria Williams. This comes through in a number of the arrangements, but so too does Lee's fuller voice and simpler approach to instrumentation. All the instruments used have an organic feel, such as the wooden flute on "Not My Will" and the constant live-sounding acoustic guitar.
The live sound is very strong here. We hear the responses of the musicians at the end of many tracks and the mix evokes pictures of a large room with a collection of musicians sitting around, playing together. This allows the songs plenty of room to breathe, and while this recording style doesn't suit everyone's tastes, it is the natural one for Lee.
A love of biblically inspired literature shines through the album, as songs influenced by Frederick Buechner and John Bunyan sit alongside Lee's own takes on various passages of scripture. Nevertheless, it is "Hope," a track that doesn't cite any of these influences, which is the lyrical standout for me:
Hope sits on the corner, with everything she has
Wrapped up inside her
Faith, her only companion, though invisible to me,
Is the one she would die for.
For those who like their music stripped down and acoustic, this album is highly recommended. For those who don't ... well it might be worth a try anyway.
4.5 tocks
