We carried Marybeth’s excellent debut album (Heaven Hell Sin & Redemption) in 2008, and the intervening three years have seen her deservedly make an impact on the Americana – singer/songwriter scene in Europe with distribution, regular successful touring and sharing the stages with artists such as Jeffrey Foucault, Meg Hutchinson, Antje Duvekot and more.
The debut album was a fairly dark collection, but it was all held together with fantastic melodies – the melodies are repeated here, but the overall sound little grittier and edgier, it’s still in the folk/country genre but the inclusion of electric guitar in places really gives the album its own identity.
She uses a full band across the disc and has brought together some superb Austin musicians to add bass, percussion, Hammond and mandolin to acoustic and electric guitars to create a classic sound, which easily moves from full sounding tracks through to acoustic numbers - te production by Bradley Kopp (Eliza Gilkyson, Jimmie Dale Gilmore) is perfectly balanced.
The songs here are broadly dark in lyrical tone, although she manages to avoid being to inward-looking and the lyrics cover subject that the listening can relate to and bring their own emotions to the song.
Highlights include ‘Der Grenzer’ a thoughtful song of a German-border guard (D’Amico is an American living in Germany); ‘Tiny Star’ is a heartfelt ballad; and ‘This House’ tells an oblique story using a clever metaphor to get the message across.
Marybeth is an interesting and thoughtful artist, and this collection of mature and fully rounded songs will certainly reinforce her place on the European singer/songwriter scene.
Track listing
1 The Darkest Day
2 Beneath the Rubble
3 Stubborn Land
4 Don't Look Back
5 Inside Out
6 This House
7 Walk Away
8 Reborn
9 Der Grenzer
10 Star-Crossed
11 This is My World
12 Tiny Star
review 16 May 2011
