Eliza Gilkyson Beckons for a Journey on ‘Songs From the River Wind’

Almost halfway through Eliza Gilkyson’s exquisite new album, Songs From the River Wind, the gorgeous “Wind River and You” casts a spell with its warm harmonies, flawless instrumentation, and wistful memories of “days that were golden” that “slipped into the past.” From the song’s opening mandolin notes to the lap steel on the instrumental bridge, from the tender twining of Gilkyson’s voice with that of producer and multi-instrumentalist Don Richmond to the slight modulation of Gilkyson’s voice on the final note, “Wind River and You” dazzles, gem-like in its perfection. Every track on Songs From the River Wind sparkles and shines in the light of Gilkyson’s evocative songwriting.

The album opens with a loping take on the traditional “Wanderin’,” moved along by Richmond’s gypsy jazz-inflected guitar, with mandolin and dobro playing call-and-response on the instrumental bridge. Gilkyson’s arrangement evokes ceaseless, restless movement.

Richmond’s undulating dobro opens “Buffalo Gals Redux,” Gilkyson’s bright take on “Buffalo Gals,” which closes with fiddle and dobro dancing around each other in a lilting, spritely reel.

Richmond’s plaintive banjo fuels “Charlie Moore,” Gilkyson’s tribute to a “silent and wise man” who “knew the back country well” and once rescued the singer and her brother; here she pleads with him to “carry me back to the wilderness.” Gilkyson adapts the traditional Western tune “Colorado Trail” to her own story of heartache; the opening fiddle creates a lonesome mood and evokes the weeping of the rains that fall on a dark night as she travels the back roads of Colorado from one gig to the next. The bluegrass rambler “The Hill Behind This Town” gambols joyously, while crystalline guitar lines weave under Gilkyson’s vocals on the Woody Guthrie-like ballad “At the Foot of the Mountain.”

With Songs From the River Wind, Gilkyson once again demonstrates that she is one of our most insightful lyricists, telling stories with such an emotional intensity that we cry every tear, feel every heartbreak, mourn every loss, and exult in every joy about which she sings from her heart. Songs From the River Wind is sheer perfection from first note to last.