Dandelion - Claire Holley

Never a week seems to go by at my home without a CD from someone I've never heard of but taken a chance on dropping onto my doormat. A couple of weeks ago, it was the turn of Claire Holley and her second album "Dandelion". Again, the purchase hinged upon a recommendation from buying something else and I was once again pleasantly surprised. Whilst labelled as 'country rock', the album covers more territory than that - if I was pushed, it ...
...Claire Holley is nowhere near being a household name - which for me scores points towards actually liking what I'm going to hear. Whilst there are literally hundreds, probably thousands of female singer-songwriters coming up with similar material in the US, the fact that she's not been swallowed by the mincing machine that seems to eat up 'the next great thing' has kept her music clear, pure, enjoyable - and more importantly, her own, free from persuasive ... more

Never a week seems to go by at my home without a CD from someone I've never heard of but taken a chance on dropping onto my doormat. A couple of weeks ago, it was the turn of Claire Holley and her second album "Dandelion". Again, the purchase hinged upon a recommendation from buying something else and I was once again pleasantly surprised. Whilst labelled as 'country rock', the album covers more territory than that - if I was pushed, it would apply to the first track only.

Claire Holley is nowhere near being a household name - which for me scores points towards actually liking what I'm going to hear. Whilst there are literally hundreds, probably thousands of female singer-songwriters coming up with similar material in the US, the fact that she's not been swallowed by the mincing machine that seems to eat up 'the next great thing' has kept her music clear, pure, enjoyable - and more importantly, her own, free from persuasive and competing influences.

Her eponymously-titled debut album was released in 2001 and by all accounts it was a little gem, packed full of self-penned songs about personal experiences and locations. Whilst "Dandelion" does seem to be a little bit more polished, this is inevitable as the process of writing and performing is a learning experience. The polish does provide a healthy contrast between the tracks in the album, and there's not enough to leave a sickening crunch between the songs when the styles change. It's clear that the quality has not been sacrificed for the sake of commercial gain. All of the songs on "Dandelion" are still written by the artist herself with one being inspired by a line from a poem by Yeats. In fact, you know you're going to get the basics, performed well with no excess baggage when the cover of the CD is simply a picture of the artist and her guitar.

The track line-up looks like this:

1. 6 Miles To McKenney
2. Dandelion
3. Henry's
4. Sugar
5. Waiting For The Whales
6. Love Never Came
7. Playground
8. The Singer
9. Tread Softly
10. Waving Goodbye
11. The Deep

The more commercial aspect of "Dandelion" is evident on the opening track "6 Miles To McKenney" which kicks off with a cracking guitar accompaniment and vocals reminiscent of Sheryl Crow back in her "Tuesday Night Music Club" days - in fact, this particular track would not have seemed out of place on that particular album. A simple story of an encounter with a 'wild woman' in a battered car at a gasoline store whilst paying for a coke ("looking at the chickens under the hot lamps"), it thumps along rather nicely with a surprising ending to the lyrics. After just one listen I was hooked.

The mood and style slide towards the acoustic end of the spectrum in the next couple of tracks, the sublime title track "Dandelion" and "Henry's", a simply-yet-brilliantly executed piece of music about a barman watching his customers one evening. From an initial high, the latter drops down to a slow, melancholy wandering, Holley's vocals unhindered by competing accompaniment. She doesn't need to strain or stretch here and the song is all the better for it.

"Sugar" follows in the same vein but with a sweetly sung and more dominant chorus, whilst "Waiting For The Whales" sees her vocals drop down a couple of notches to deliver the song in a more sultry fashion.

"Love Never Came" puts the album firmly back in commercial street although there's no sell-out since it's effortlessly performed and builds up to the break with an air of self-confidence that might be associated with a much more famous artist. "Playground" and "The Singer" drop back into the acoustic mould and domestic situations whilst "Tread Softly" is a short (1.04) instrumental. "Waving Goodbye" and "The Deep" round off "Dandelion" with more familiar acoustic territory.

I was pleased and pleasantly surprised regarding how much there was to enjoy on this album - often I'm confronted with maybe three or four tracks that stand out and the rest errs towards filler material - not so on this release, since anything that could be considered 'filler' is so well performed that it still provides commanding listening.

The CD inlay provides full lyrics for all of the songs and photos of the backing musicians that helped to help the album so good - let's hope that forthcoming releases are as joyful to listen to as "Dandelion". 

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