‘Song For The Night’ is the debut E.P. from Silkwinders. It's a collaboration between Andrea Webster from Our Missing Cat, and Les King who is from The Katie Winter. The four tracks on this E.P. were recorded last summer, with Les on guitars and vocals, Andrea on guitars, vocals and keyboards, and featuring Michael Aldridge on bass. All tracks fall well within the folk music genre.
Opening with ‘Paper Boats’, this E.P. gets off to a fine start, with acoustic guitar and some brilliant harmonies between the two vocalists. This is a song that follows a firm tradition in folk about love and loss and the healing process that follows. The lyrics written by Karin Taylor suit the mood perfectly: -
“Tomorrow when I awake, I’m starting something new, I’ll make some paper boats and ready them for you...Once the boats are soaked with my tears splashed upon them,I’ll stand at water’s edge, send them out on the ocean.” I thought that this really hit home, and was a good enough track that it lingered in the imagination long after it finished playing.
‘With My Own Eyes’ is another acoustic guitar track, this time recounting a journey from the perspective of the traveller: -“It is beautiful here, Nashville City skyline, in echoes of blue and white, country beyond here/ Footsteps could take me to alien places. Craters, dinosaurs/ And from here I could walk to the Pacific.”
Following on from this is ‘Salvation’, which changes the tempo and style a bit. Slower, with alternating vocals between Les and Andrea, there is some excellent echo that is use perfectly for effect. The lyrics are deep and meaningful, about taking on life’s problems and heartaches: - “In that moment of flight, there was promise/ There was bitter salvation, but there was no sadness.”
|
Finally the E.P. closes with ‘Song For The Night’, another acoustic folk number all about coping with sadness and how others can help. Once again, verses are split between Les and Andrea: - “What song shall I sing when the sun goes down, as it buries the sadness of the day?/ What lullaby must I sing when I close my eyes tonight?”
Andrea then follows with: - “What melodies shall I sing you to put dreams in your mind/ So that you will wake full of hope?”
Overall, I thought that this was a refreshing take on a genre that has frequently been bogged down by a lack of humour or passion. With this E.P., Silkwinders have injected new life into the scene. Hopefully this collaboration will produce further results.
Listen to Silkwinders at Bandcamp
|
