Claire Holley’s fourth album ‘Dandelion’ has a wonderful atmosphere to it, it’s easy going, relaxed and has a natural feel and flow that works from the very first listen. Much of this is down to her vocals – she has a warm and pure voice with the smallest hint of a Southern US accent, although she’s not a striking or unique singer there’s an effortless charm to her voice that is instantly endearing.
The real highlight her is Claire’s writing, mainly strong descriptive narratives of ordinary life, she gives clear accounts of situations for a detached point of view – this added to the excellent detail in the songs gives a different listening experience when compared to many other singer/songwriters.
The flow of the disc is helped by instrumentation and recording, much of the album was recorded live in the studio, and the freeness and interaction between the musicians is obvious throughout, but is at it’s best on the title track where the vocals and guitar work together beautifully. Over the disc it’s a traditional mixture of acoustic and electric guitars, percussion and bass with harp and dobro providing colour across a few songs.
While her observational style demands a mellow acoustic approach to the music, there is some contrast through the eleven songs, the mainly acoustic feel is broken by ‘6 Miles to Kilkenny’ a buzzy country rocker, and ‘Waiting for the Whales’ has a deeper and darker musical approach.
Dandelion is a disc of real craft – lyrically and musically excellent, and with subtle and intelligent instrumentation. An excellent album.

£13.49