ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Precious Bane’ Jim White Teams Up with Long-Time Pal for Project Inspired by Book She Gave Him
Rachel Cholst
Posted On January 30, 2025
Jim White and Trey Blake present a layered composition in their intriguing project, Precious Bane. As complex as the music itself is, the album will require some context. White is an Americana outsider, “discovered” by David Byrne in the ‘90s and the subject of a 2002 BBC4 documentary about his groundbreaking 1997 album The Mysterious Tale of How I Shouted Wrong Eyed Jesus.
Once, while on tour in London, a shy fan approached White and gifted him with a copy of the 19th-century novel Precious Bane by Mary Webb. The fan’s name was Trey Blake, a neurodivergent artist in Brighton, UK, who is a full-time caregiver and artist. Blake grew up undiagnosed, and struggled with addiction as a means to, as she put it in a press release, “manage her resultant inability to function in the mainstream world.”
In spite of these obstacles, the pair kept up a years-long correspondence, culminating in this project. The novel, incidentally, is about a woman in a rural village in the South of England who is convinced life holds nothing in store for her as a result of her harelip. She learns to accept her impediment, and to see herself as others do, thanks to the love of an honest weaver who services the village. It is this quest for a love that transcends pain that animates this album.
White excels in jaunty-seeming country arrangements that contrast with his dark spiritual visions. While “My Time With the Angels,” a cheeky ballad of mischief-making at the hands of divine authority, follows in that vein, White cashes in all his trips on Precious Bane. These songs are gothic and dark, pounding and relentless, almost medieval in their somber intonations.
But the lyrics are not. “Rushing in Waves” tells of the transformative power of an unexpected love: not just the emotional tidal wave, but the ways we help each other understand what we cannot on our own. “One Last Love Song” similarly explores how a true romance can transcend our universal fate.
The pair are hypnotic, with White’s gentle rasp challenged by Blake’s commanding ring. But it’s when Blake takes center stage on “Midnight Blue” that we bear witness to her power. The torch song transmutes into something altogether unique in Blake’s hands. Her vibrato makes the song’s tranquil pace feel unbearably fragile, that amidst the cruelty of this universe, there is always that one moment of peace before surrender.
Jim White and Trey Blake’s Precious Bane is out Jan. 31.
