Sally Anne Morgan’s music sounds as though it has crept out of the backwoods of her native North Carolina, her voice, banjo and fiddle thrumming with the wet heaviness of that region’s stormy summers. As a member of folk duo House and Land and Appalachian old-time-music band Black Twig Pickers, her work usually twists from the roots of traditional songs and instrumentals. Her new album, Carrying (her third solo album after 2020’s Thread and 2021’s Cups) clings to something in the present, however: the strangeness of becoming a mother and the arrival of her first child.
Beekeeper, a solo banjo instrumental played by Morgan, opens the album. Warm, resonant string patterns suggest a natural process repeating itself, every time in slightly different, productive ways. The Center follows, with lyrics that would make perfect material for doom metal bands: “Universal tomb / Universal womb / Bury me, carry me”. Her vocals, holding echoes of Josephine Foster and Gillian Welch, sound strangely blissful around Lou Turner’s fluttering flute lines and Nathan Bowles’ easygoing drums.
There is also a glockenspiel-spiked prayer to the spring (Dawn Circle) and an ode to another season’s shapeshifting effects, Summerwater, whose opening couplet is worthy of a southern poet: “Summer drifts by, fat and wet / Full of watermelon and salt.” Elsewhere, the treatment of traditional ballad Streets of Derry, cosseted by synthesiser pads, tape loops and Joseph O’Connell’s duetting vocals, feels slightly syrupy, while the guitar solo in a version of Ramblin’ Jack Elliot’s Diamond Joe demands a rock god gurn.
Nobody could deny Morgan’s tenderness on Song for Arthur, however, a love-doused lullaby for her son. As an album that thanks people who helped with childcare in the credits, Carrying can’t help but be full of feeling.
Also out this month
Martin Simpson and Thomm Jutz’s Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs of Mary Sands and Jane Gentry (Topic), brings together songs collected from two women in the southern Appalachians, drizzling them with Simpson’s shining guitars and assorted soloists. Many arrangements are glossily pretty; most affecting are Odessa Settles’ passionate take on Pretty Saro, and Angeline Morrison’s characterful subtlety on The Suffolk Miracle. Traditional percussion such as the khartal, dholak and bhapang are used stunningly on Jason Singh and the Banwasi Collective’s Travellers (Hudson Records), where master singers deliver beautiful tales from Rajasthan in Hindi, Urdu, Marwari, Sindhi and Saraiki. Fledgling performers and experimental folk fans will also love the wonderful Sing Yonder compilation (self-released), curated by folk writer and designer Karl Sinfield. Stripped-down traditionals are performed in unconventional settings by the likes of the Shackleton Trio, Hevelwood and Henry Parker; a gorgeous book detailing the songs’ stories, chords and recommended versions is also available.
