'Sing It for a Lifetime' was forged in a pressure cooker: it was recorded in one sound-proofed room in a house that was being sold, as Heidi Talbot looked after her two daughters and negotiated the split from her husband of 11 years, the folk musician John McCusker. A planned recording stint in Louisiana, cancelled because of Covid turned into a remote real-time session over two different time zones, 3,000 miles apart. An international group of musicians including her friend Mark Knopfler somehow came together so smoothly, you can't hear the seams. The result is a crowning achievement in her 20-year career. It shows a UK folk veteran going transatlantic, an unconscious return to her earliest years as a performer. But most importantly, it features her most raw and open-hearted work to date, as she finds a new voice away from the long standing recording partnership with McCusker, who produced her.
May 2020
