Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Somewhere in the deepest darkest parts of the North, away from the bright lights of Manchester, the larger, older and sometimes forgotten mill towns that cut into the countryside that borders Yorkshire and its bitter but sometimes friendly rival Lancashire, a sound is stirring. Some great acoustic music is finding its way out of the moorlands and into the thoughts of the wider world.
Rose Greenwood is not a name that many will know yet but the sincere, natural and unpretentious way in which she performs her songs on her album Yorkshire Street lights up a dark gloomy morning as if she is standing at the end of your bed shining a 100 watt lamp through the gloom and showing you there is another way to live your life, one that radiates a smile and bravely wafts away the dejection.
The album features the talents of Mick Wright on guitar but it is subtly beauty of Rose Greenwood’s voice, the distinct pleasure in some of her bitter-sweet lyrics in which she sings of confusion, heart-break and the odd moment of pure love which really grabs the attention of the listener. Rose Greenwood’s voice, light, ethereal and feminine hides the punch that is woven carefully into each song of a woman not taking prisoners, of wanting to show why she should be taken seriously at her craft. The result is an album that is hard to take off the C.D. player, to move onto another album just in case that radiance, the wonderful sense of irrational thought of permanent sunshine should drift off elsewhere.
Songs such as Oh, My Friends, Safe Road Home, A Taller Tree and Secrets and Silence hum and resonate in a similar way to the thought of the legendary Paul Simon making his way with an acoustic guitar throughout the north of England, setting up a notion as he criss-crosses the United States in search of the mythical America. Whilst Rose Greenwood has got a way to go to emulate the man and his music, Yorkshire Street, with its folk tales is an excellent start.
An excellent addition to the world of English folk and acoustic bliss.
Ian D. Hall