Louise Taylor – Written in Red

The New England states have produced singer-songwriters as regularly and plentifully as their famed autumn vistas. Of the past decade’s crop, Vermont’s Louise Taylor is among the more interesting, augmenting the genre’s requisite basic skills with an authentic bluesy edge and a deeply ingrained connection to Appalachian and Irish forms.

Blessed with a voice as rich and vital as blood, Taylor has an enviable mastery of pitch that allows her (when needed) to bring the tempo of her earthy, highly personal vignettes to a near-halt, while still maintaining the melody’s internal drive.

Written In Red is her long-awaited follow-up to 1997’s acclaimed Ride, with co-producers Taylor and Peter Gallway reprising that album’s spare/spacious sound with an even more minimal backdrop. Taylor’s intriguing, often bleak tales are always front-and-center, with the input of the fine supporting cast applied like painterly accents.

The disc opens with “Cherry Tree” and “Over The Mountain”, a pair of sinuous, snaky blues cuts, but the bulk of the remaining tracks peel back dramatically, allowing Taylor’s sensuous delivery and awesome command to unfurl the songs with exquisite, aching deliberation.

If you need a fair dose of uptempo tunes to hold your interest, Written In Red is just the ticket to drive you bonkers. If, on the other hand, you’re barreling through life at a too-hectic pace, Louise Taylor will remind you of the value and pleasures of a slow, sure hand.