While her excellent live interpretation of Dylan’s ‘Blood on the Tracks’ was the disc that brought Mary Lee Kortes and her band to a wider audience, her real strength lies in her own acoustic based singer/songwriter material, and this new album looks certain to cement her reputation as one of the very best around.
The first thing that hits you is the quality of the singing – her voice is versatile, pure, and full of effortless and unforced emotion, at times her delivery says as much as the lyrics ever could.
She’s an excellent songwriter too; the lyrics are intelligent, concise and meaningful, and all the songs are hook-laden – this is the ideal combination, songs that are immediately striking but with lots in the lyrics for those willing to delve a little deeper.
There’s a good variety of styles on the disc from the detailed folky narrative in the acoustic ‘Portland, Michigan’ to the pop-tinged acoustic rock of ‘(Give it to) The Needy’. These two songs are amongst the highlights, ‘Portland, Michigan’ a wonderful song about the ties we all have to our roots, and ‘(Give it to) The Needy’ is a great ‘kiss-off’ song celebrating independence, add to this the title track, a song based on excerpts from her Grandmother’s travel diary and you have three songs that represent the range of styles on display over the 12 songs.
Musically there’s a lot on offer here, there’s a huge variety of instrumentation, but it’s used sparingly, and all the songs are fundamentally acoustic with varying degrees of accompaniment.
‘700 Miles’ is an excellent album, she has a superb voice, a tight band, and she knows how to write and deliver a strong song. Highly recommended.

£13.49