Bella Hardy, Love Songs 2022 Noe Records

With her 10th album of songs themed around love, seven traditional and four of her own compositions, Bella draws on material she knows intimately and that intimacy lights a real spark. Clearly there is a double meaning in the album title, with the musician’s love for the material apparent all the way through.

The album opens with “Winter Darkness”, a tune written for Backbone Of Our Land at the Sage in Gateshead, an early example of the deft and sensitive musicianship that underpins this album. “Hares on the Mountain” is perfect, with Bella’s amazing vocal and fiddle and a pared back guitar from Mike Vass so minimal it sounds like a loop. Minimal it might be but there is real tension in the spaces on this album highlight. “My Johnny was a Shoemaker” is similarly sketched, carried by an infectious guitar or plucked fiddle melody and a spirited vocal from Bella. “Sprig of Thyme” is another well known song and an exercise in how perfect guitar and voice can sound with the right musicians. “The Navigator’s Bride” is a corker of a Hardy composition, its arrangement with Tom Gibbs’ stately piano and clarinet give the tale of love and change a June Tabor like gravitas and power. “I Think of You”, written for the Doncaster ‘War and Peace’ 1914-1918 project is another emotionally charged tale with an infectious tune and stunning vocal. Delicate and perfectly balanced with everything in the right place and a little saying a lot like Kate Bush’s THE SENSUAL WORLD. “Greenwood Laddie” is a traditional song that deals with forbidden love. Bella’s vocals capture that sense of longing perfectly as fiddle and guitar swirl around her. “Awake Awake” is another beautiful love song, a marriage of the title song and “Silver Dagger” learnt from the singing of Maggie Boyle. Listen out for the amazing clarinet and Bella’s vocal. “Lowlands Away” is just Hardy’s voice and is a sublime piece of unaccompanied singing. “Loving Hannah” is a song of unrequited love, of love gone away, Bella’s vocal is tender and sad, but there is real anger and darkness in the traditional lyrics.

Recorded in just three days with lockdown requiring a return to self accompanied singing and a rediscovery of the songs she grew up with, circumstances have conspired to make LOVE SONGS a complete classic.

Marc Higgins 08/08/22

https://www.propermusic.com/noe13-love-songs.html

Noe Records 11 tracks