Carrying on the good songwriting ethos from the previous post, I should quickly mention Alela Diane to you. Portland’s Holocene Music released her self-released second album in October, after she made 650 copies by hand, that is “sewing lace and paper bags for the case, drawing golden ships, lettering ink, and burning each cd“. So we can say “The Pirates Gospel” is her first proper meet with a larger audiences and it won’t take a genius to figure out that she’s a gifted songwriter. Hell, she may easily be labeled the reincarnation of the down-to earth, treehuggin’, homegrown all-Americana female folk singer for this decade.

I’m not really literate in American acoustic folk music so only obvious comparisons like Joan Baez (the protest attitude replaced by more personal & lyrical stuff (but not as lyrical as say Joanna Newsom), Iron & Wine or Devandra from recent times spring to my mind and that should be enough to give you a basic idea because her music speaks for her and all you need to do is to hear the first few notes to get it. The warm kitchen picture she’s added to her myspace or her influences “Campfire gospel, children singin’ along, and my great aunt Fay’s guitar.” also paints a picture of American memory & landscapes. I know I say this all the time but really “The Pirates Gospel” is a brilliant album with no mediocre songs. I know it’s extremely hard to keep an audience interested (e.g a non-American like me) in only a guitar and vocal , especially without the added bonus of psychedelic or cinematic elements or other instruments, but she manages this almost effortlessly with simple songs and good singing. This is definitely a keeper from 2007, don’t miss it.