From traditional folk to original songs spanning continents and centuries, this outstandingly beautiful and emotive album by the American and Italian music and life partners was recorded in lockdown in their adopted Ireland home at Hellfire, a small studio on a working farm outside of Dublin in just six days. With guitar, other strings, woodwind and more, whether new to her repertoire or re-visited, every number is a gem, Giddens and Turrisi bringing each a vibrant new life, I Shall Not Be Moved, Black As Crow (Dearest Dear) and Waterbound have been sung before, but have never sounded better. Avalon is new original, and an Italian lullaby, Nenna Nenna, that Turrisi used to sing to his infant daughter. Among the very best are Calling Me Home by Alice Gerrard, the folk music pioneer which Giddens says “it struck me forcefully and deeply the first time I heard it, and every time since”, Monteverdi’s Si Dolce è’l Tormento and When I Was in My Prime, a folk song also known to fans of Pentangle and Nina Simone, and the blues classic O Death, which is given great emotive power with backing vocals and stark bodhran percussion. The musicianship throughout is exemplary by Turrisi, including also Niwel Tsumbu’s lovely nylon string guitar on Niwel Goes to Town, and Emer Mayock’s Irish flute on the old standard Black as Crow. Transcendent, uplifting and exquisite, together voice, strings and more intertwine fantastically. Out on Nonesuch Records.
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