New Music 2016 - Part 40 - Brigid Mae Power

Only last week was I expressing my appreciation for the breadth and quality of new music coming out of Ireland. Well here I go again with the self-titled début from Irish (but London-born) artist Brigid Mae Power.

Brigid Mae Power (Tompkins Square, June 10 [US]/July 8 [UK] 2016).

A multi-instrumentalist, Mae Power plays piano, harmonium, accordion and baritone ukulele as well as the guitar. For me though it is her voice that is the most powerful instrument here. It is clear and confident, but not overwhelming, and the rest of the instrumentation, which incidentally doesn't always conform to the templates of traditional folk, provides a lush background to the songs.

The feeling it carries is of pastoral bliss, but the fact that nature is cruel is never very far below the surface of the eight songs. The principle collaborator on this work is Oregon-based songwriter and singer Peter Broderick and the impression of symbiosis permeates.

Brigid Mae Power:

• It's Clearing Now
• Sometimes
• Let Me Hold You Through This
• Is It My Low or Yours
• Lookin at You In a Photo
• I Left Myself for a While
• Watching the Horses
• How You Feel

It is compellingly persistent and involving yet a thread is left loose with final track, 'How You Feel'.  Neither a question nor proscribing, it is simply the state in which things are perceived.