Carrie Elkin's third album, her first for Red House Records, was recorded in Elkin's adopted home town of Austin, Texas and ,more specifically, in the "brilliant and bright home" of a songwriter friend, Sam Baker. (The track Dear Sam, is a thank you message in song).
A video of the recording session shows her band in this makeshift studio having a blast in what is obviously a familiar and relaxing environment.
The record begins and ends with the sound of laughter and the positive mood generated by being in a good space with good friends is captured on the album's eleven songs.
The group of assembled musicians and/or vocalists includes Elkin's partner Danny Schmidt who, in the song St Louis, she refers to as her "man of many moons" - a reference to the title of his album released almost simultaneously on the same label.
Her songs have an easy going, good humoured feel. Even one - Guilty Hands - which suggests a loss of religious belief is rendered with such a lightness of touch that believers will not be shocked when she confesses that "when I blew the roof off the church, I was singing all my demons out").
This tone is set from the start with the opening track - Jesse Likes Birds - being a breezy reworking of the Hush Little Baby lullaby ("Mama's going to buy you a mocking bird") which morphs into a banjo hoedown.
The only non original song on the album is a cover of Dar Williams' Iowa (or, the way Elkin sings it 'I were') which includes a great image of running "through the screen doors of discretion".
Shots Ring Out seems to be about the murder of a violent and abusive lover although the precise meaning is deliberately clouded in metaphorical language and a shifting perspective. This is typical of a song writing style that places greater emphasis on feelings and impressions than on telling straight narratives. On The Things We're Afraid Of , for instance, she somewhat curiously sings from the point of view of a man ("Will she think I'm a boring man").
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Landeth By Sea is my personal favourite, a gentle ballad which reflects on the mysteries of love and affirming a need for harmony and balance which are symbolised by water and earth. This is summed up by the lines : "You've found your quiet now, And I've found my quiet now by landeth and by sea, One can't exist without the other to feed it"
Edge of the World, a track recorded 'live' in Sam's home, closes the album as optimistically as it started.
Call It My Garden takes us deep into the heart of Bob Harris country, warm-hearted tunes played with zest and enthusiasm which make for safe, easy-listening.
It demonstrates that Carrie Elkin has found a calm quiet centre in her 'garden'; a place full of music and surrounded by friends. As she sings on St Louis : "I call it my garden .......... I call it life, And my life's pretty good".
Carrie Elkin's Website
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