Silver and Ash
Clare Burson
Rounder Records.
Original SCQ Review
Amid all of the new talent SCQ stumbled across this year, I can’t think of any who deserve national attention more than Clare Burson. Burson’s songwriting is immediately likable without catering to any hooks or shortcuts. In fact, the most desirable moments on Silver and Ash rise out of tough Americana ambience, like the dirt-poor grind of distortion loitering Burson’s acoustic lilt on ‘The Only Way’ and the pedal-steel wallowing the corners of ‘Look Close’. She owns the spotlight as graciously as she shares it, trading songbird intimacy on ‘Goodbye My Love’ for the expertly arranged full-band narrative of ‘Everything’s Gone’.
Between records that immediately announce their superiority and those which repeatedly prove their worth over months at a time, I prefer the latter’s darkhorse effect. And that’s what Silver And Ash is; a mournful but pitch-perfect songwriter album always striving from behind.
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