Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Just by their very presence, some people display a brightness so illuminating that when they depart from your sight for a while, the darkness can feel consuming, it eats away at your soul because you understand exactly what they have bought to your life, through art, through the persistence of their ability and exceptional talent.
It is that serenade in which they initially draw you in to the world, one in which they surpass the glow of the sun, and the life in which they live through their words and the gentleness of their chosen instrument, that when they depart to immerse themselves, replenish their being, all that is left is the calling card of what to look forward to, the Leaving Light swinging on the awning, caught in the tussle of wind of future expectation and the love that will hopefully return.
For Rachael Jean Harris leaving a light on has displayed that the fire was always burning, that she would return to the stage and the studio, and whilst Time has a funny habit of running faster than we can normally cope with, it leaves us trailing, only that swinging light remains a constant reminder of the promise made that we will return to where love first dawned, and it is the return of a sunrise that sees the five songs that make up Ms. Harris’ new work savour that promise and assurance.
Across the songs Carson, Money, Crystal Speaks, Hair of the Moon and Toothache in Solitary, Leaving Light brings a wave of memory of what Rachael Jean Harris has bought to local audiences, and to the wider world crowd before; confidence and cool poise is a resilient wind that can make any swinging lamp jostle in the darkness, but it takes absolute assurance to bring that lamp to life, to relight the wick, to see it simmer with an orange glow and then burn brightly in the face of other’s timid reflection, urging them to keep an eye of their own lamp.
Leaving Light is a welcome restoration of the inflaming of the passions of a lady of music, Rachael Jean Harris has again found a way to tap into the times and the ideas that float and flutter like butterflies around a swinging sun that is thankful for the illumination; a light that signals a new beginning rather that a sad departure.
Ian D. Hall