josienne clarke: one light is gone

Josienne Clarke’s music, by her own website’s bio, “languishes in folk chanson, but occasionally dips a toe into blues shoes.” On the evidence of her debut album One Light Is Gone, it might be fairer to say ‘rarely dips’ as there is much more folk to be found here than blues. Not that it matters, for Clarke proves more than adept at the genre over the course of fourteen songs.

One Light Is Gone is almost entirely acoustic, and it’s a setting that suits the nature of both the material, which possesses a traditional feel, and Clarke’s vocal delivery. The intricate guitar figures of co-writer and accompanist Ben Walker provide the foundation for Clarke’s clear, resonant folk voice, which at times recalls Sandy Denny and, in the dark Celtic dressing of album highlight ‘On The Ropes’, even Grace Slick.

Aside from the rich, plangent folk of much of the material, a few songs stray tentatively into country music territory, with ‘All My Truth’ exhibiting a vague bluegrass influence and the jaunty ‘Die Trying’ lifting the latter part of the album, which has a tendency to drag. Among the more memorable tracks are the creepy ‘A Black Night’ and its inspired middle section of solo guitar, the melancholy beauty that is ‘Out To Sea’, and the bewitching ‘By The Fire’, on which Clarke makes use of some lovely vocal overdubs.

The instrumentation may be similar throughout but the individual songs slowly show themselves to be remarkably well built, and several to be impressively pretty and heart-rending stuff. A promising debut, then, One Light Is Gone more than holds its own among other British folk records and deserves to attract due recognition.

[Hatfish Music; January 10, 2011]

Written by: Matt Barton

Tags: josienne clarke, one light is gone

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