Album review: Rachel Harrington – Celilo Falls (terrible album cover but a great album)
Joe Lepper
Posted On November 23, 2010
Beneath what is possibly the year’s worst album cover are hidden some of 2010′s most heart warming tracks, writes Neonfiller.com.
Celilo Falls by US bluegrass/folk singer songwriter Rachel Harrington is romantic and full of warmth with its timeless, traditional take on American folk. There’s a lot of love here, with many of the songs focusing on long term romance of elderly couples dealing with inevitable grief and looking back at their lives.
All this you would struggle to know from the cover, which features Harrington standing straight backed and stoney faced in her lace up wellies by some old twigs . She looks like she’s just taken the rubbish (trash to our US readers) out rather than looking to sell the world some much needed romance.
The shame of this is that the cover will put people off. So our message to those who spot this in stores or online is buy it but close your eyes before purchasing and imagine a far better cover.
Among the best tracks are ‘Bury Me Close’, inspired by her widowed grandfather reminiscing about her grandmother, with tears in his eyes, sitting in a wheelchair saying: “You should have seen her dance.”
There’s a lot of traditional instrumentation here, dobro, banjo and mandolin, but for me the album is at its best when its mainly Harrington and her guitar. On ‘You Don’t Know’ and ‘Where Are You?’ for example, the lighter touch production takes Harrington’s music out of traditional country and Americana, across the folk boundaries and into a world of more contemporary singers like Shannon Stephens and perhaps a wider audience.
What impresses me most is that while singing about love and loss on Celilo Falls, which is released by Skinny Dennis and is Harrington’s third album, her songs never feel depressing. An inspiring album indeed. I just hope she ditches the cover when its reissued.
7.5/10
